Ratchet & Clank: The Lost Race
by Caprice1996
Summary: A new evil threatens the galaxy and soon... the universe. Our two heroes, Ratchet and Clank set off on another adventure to stop the construction of a powerful weapon. But after the heroes crash land on a planet, will Ratchet find more about his origins and the location of the Lombaxes? CHAPTER 5 IS UP!
1. Prologue: Secret Plans

In an unknown location, three men were sitting around a table, discussing a very secret matter. The room had its lights turned off, except for one light, which was situated above the table, but the men's faces were in the shadows and cannot be seen.

"So, how long will it take to build?" said a voice in the dark.

"Well, according to the notes," said a second voice, "three months."

"Three months?"

"Yes. We also still need something called a 'X7 Geo-Laser' and a Raritanium Core to be installed in the station."

"A Geo-Laser? Isn't that something that GrummelNet is working on to create better technology for their merchandise?" asked a third voice.

"Yes," said the Second, "and according to the Grummel scientists, they've just completed it."

"So, we are going to steal that Geo-Laser from GrummelNet, are we?"

"Yes sir, tomorrow night we are, we already sent a team of our best men to retrieve it for us. They will arrive there tomorrow night and retrieve the laser without anyone knowing."

"Ok great, what about the Raritanium Core? Raritanium is, well… rare. An idiot can figure that out."

"Well, we are going to build one, but, according to the instructions and blueprints, we need half a ton of Raritanium."

"What?!" yelled the First. "We can't just find half a ton of Raritanium just lying on the ground! We need to mine the stuff, which will cost billions."

"Don't worry, sir. We will sort that out; there is a Raritanium mine on planet Aridia, they just recently discovered a whole bound of Raritanium in the billions… possibly _trillions_."

"I thought planet Aridia was a Galactic Ranger outpost?" asked the Third.

"It is, but since the Raritanium mine is underneath one of the biggest Galactic Ranger bases on the planet," explained the second, "the base is shut down until every part of the mine is emptied."

"Ah yes, which outpost is that?" said the First.

"Outpost X12."

"Outpost X12…? Is that the base that was attacked?"

"Yes, by the Tyrannoids years ago, they just rebuilt the base." explained the Second. "While they were digging really deep holes to bury the bodies of the Tyrannoids, they noticed something other than dirt and sand in the ground, that's when they discovered the Raritanium. They scanned the entire area to check just how much Raritanium they were dealing with, they stated there was so much of the stuff, the radar just conked out, due to just how much glowing dots there were of Raritanium."

A few seconds went by until the Third spoke.

"It looks like Raritanium is no longer… _rare _anymore, heheh." snickered the Third.

The First looked at the Third with annoyance.

"That's very funny," said the First.

"Thank you, sir," said the Third, still snickering.

"But that does not help out the situation!" the First suddenly yelled, the Third slightly flinched from the reaction. The First then turned back to the Second. "That's a lot of Raritanium, but why do we need a Raritanium Core?"

"The Raritanium Core is to function and charge the Geo-Laser." the Second explained.

"But surly we have other power sources to power the laser?"

"No, we don't. The Geo-Laser is functioned by Raritanium as well. But," said the Second as he held up a finger, "what most people don't know about Raritanium is that it is one of the most powerful energy sources in the universe, but it does not surpass Zoni technology however."

"What?" exclaimed the First, surprised by the response. "I thought Raritanium is just used to purchase valuable upgrades, not just used as a power source."

"Raritanium is rare because of the galaxy's climate; it has to be created in very certain areas that are very hot or very cold. And it has to form for millions… maybe _billions_ of years. It also has to have enough pressure to form, a lot of pressure. When that happens, energy is created and stored inside the Raritanium."

"Wow… that's awesome!" said the Third, easily impressed.

Ignoring the Third, the First spoke again to the Second.

"So, we got that sorted out. Now, where do you suppose we build the station?"

"That information is classified," said the Second, looking at his notes.

"Classified?" said the First. "I was the one—ahem, _we_ were the ones who came up with the idea!"

The Second raised an eyebrow slightly, "The reason being is because in case if anyone finds out about the station, they won't know the location. But we will witness its construction at the place it's currently been planned."

"Oh, good," said the First, pleased about the comment.

"But, what if the Galactic Authorities find out about this?" asked the Second. "Imagine what action they would take against this station? Not to mention those two creeps who keep saving the universe. Who were they again?"

"You mean that fuzzball Ratchet and that tin-head Clank?"

"Yeah, those two."

"Don't worry about them," said the First, relaxed. "I've already sorted something out that will put them out of the picture and away from fooling with our plans."

"Don't underestimate them," said the Second. "For over the past 10 years they have been saving the universe, stopping criminal masterminds, and protected galaxies. Lately, they've just stopped an intergalactic war from Stewart Zurgo."

"That fan boy who tried to kill Captain Qwark?" asked the Third.

"Ah yes, him," said the Second. "All he wanted was to be just like Qwark, and because of Captain Qwark's scandals, he found out that he was not who he thought he was, which really ruined his childhood."

"Yes, well," said the First. "Enough about that. So, in three months we shall see the station finish its construction. With this station, we can make the galaxy do whatever we want, and for those who oppose our power, shall be destroyed."

"Still, there is a risk that the Galactic Authorities—" started the Third.

"The Galactic Authorities shall be destroyed as well by this station, no questions asked." said the First, firmly.

"That would defiantly put fear through the people of the galaxy." said the Second.

"Exactly," said the First, putting on a smile. "Fear of this station and the destructive power it will unleash upon the galaxy, and eventually… the universe."

After that comment, the meeting ended.

The three men stood up from their chairs, walked to the nearest door from them (in fact, the _only _door in the room), and strode out, with the First smiling to himself.

_'Nothing shall stop me'_

* * *

The next night, in Meridian City on planet Igliak, citizens were going home from work, children were been put to bed, and the city turned from a busy day to a peaceful night. The city's skyscrapers penetrating the dark night sky, were coloured of green and white (which was their colour theme, although white isn't actually a colour).

Meridian City is the highest populated city in the Polaris Galaxy, as well as the capital. Since after the attack from Tachyon and the Cragmites, it had recovered well. Structure repaired, glass panels replaced, and anything that was unfixable, was either melted down (like metal) or thrown away.

GrummelNet HQ was in Meridian City as well. It was where weapons were constructed for their sales. During the Cragmite attack, it was shut down to prevent any intruders from breaking into the factory, which housed the weapons.

Hopefully, the people prayed, the city will not go through an attack like that again.

No more explosions.

No more people screaming and fleeing.

No more chaos.

Peace, just peace.

...or so they thought.

About two hours later around midnight, at GrummelNet HQ, there was a quick faint sound of running feet, five figures covered in black leather gear, silently and hastily, ran up to a nearby back door of the factory. Their eyes were the only parts left uncovered; otherwise, they would bump into things. One of the figures, reached for his belt, which contained a swingshot, a stun gun (which was used to stun robots as well as organics), it also held a miniature flamethrower, a few stealth bombs, and other equipment.

The figure then grabbed a stealth bomb from his belt and attached it to the door.

Stealth bombs were once used by the Agency to break into bases without disturbing security; a circular bomb, the size of a small dinner plate, was attached to the centre of the door and its wires were connected to the corners of the door's frame. Since it has less explosion frequency than a normal bomb, it was designed to force its way into the door when it detonated. With enough force, it would break the lock of the door and force it open.

Although, they made some noise when they detonate, they would still not be heard from inside the building.

The five figures put their backs up against the wall to avoid any shrapnel from the detonation.

The door exploded open (silently); smoke and broken metal was all that remained of the door as the five hastily rushed into the room.

Usually, whenever a door for employers was open or blown apart by an unauthorized person, an alarm was sounded, but not this door.

No. this door led to the ventilation system, which cooled the entire HQ.

Cool air travelled through the vents and around the whole building, it took approximately 15 minutes for the air to circle around the whole area before being sucked back into the engine (which operated the ventilation system), cooled, and started the same process of travel over again.

The men travelled over to a nearby medium-sized vent, which was blocked off by a steel-plated grill.

One of the figures took something from his belt; it was a small battery-powered screwdriver.

He walked over to the grill, which was held on the vent by four (slightly rusted) screws. After studying what size the slot was on the surface of one of the screws, he pulled out a screwdriver bit and attached it to the end of the battery-powered screwdriver, and stated loosening the screws.

At the forth screw, as he was loosening it, it suddenly snapped off.

He just gave a snort, thinking it didn't bother him; he then grabbed the grill and pulled.

_Klunk_.

It came off.

He set it aside and then signalled the other four to crawl inside.

They moved in, silently as possible, although there is the slight creaking of the vent from the amount of weight been put on it.

Although, it wasn't designed to hold five average-weight men inside, it still held, due to the excess amount of supports it had underneath.

The leader checked the map of GrummelNet HQ on his digital pocket mapper, and, following the directions given, whispered his men to open the grill entrance on the right of him.

As they moved, they noticed this grill was rusted, and without haste, one of the men told the others to move out of the way, he then laid on his back, and suddenly kicked the grill, causing it to buckle under the pressure.

"What the _hell _are you doing?!" one of the men yelled at him silently, the voice was slightly muffled by the black covering over his mouth.

"It's rusted, the screwdriver won't work on rusted screws," said the other who kicked at it, "and besides, the screws are on the _other _side of the grill."

He kicked at it again; it buckled more.

"Fine, but hurry up! We don't want to attract attention from security."

With one final kick, the whole rusted grill gave way, clanging onto the ground.

The five jumped carefully from the vent, and onto the ground.

"Let's hope we didn't attract any attention," said one of them.

"Shut up, Liam! Do _you_ want to attract attention?" said another, half yelled, half whispered.

Liam, sighed "No, Zak sir."

"I thought so," said Zack.

The five quickly moved to a nearby door, Zak yanked it open and they went through.

They looked around; they were in some sort of storage room. _'Probably where they stored their weaponry'_ thought Zak.

Zak then checked the map; they weren't far from their objective.

Checking for guards, they moved to another nearby door, directed by Zak.

Just as they unlocked it, they heard robotic voices, not far from them.

The five ducked behind some storage crates, to avoid detection.

Two robots guards came into the room with torches in their hands, searching around.

"Are you sure you heard it, XJ-78?" said one of them.

"Yes, XJ-94, it definitely heard it," said the other. "It came from here."

The robot pointed towards the door, which was where the men came out moments ago, through the ventilation system.

"Oh, great" whispered Zak, behind the boxes.

The two robots walked closer to the opened door.

"I think your malfunctioning—" said XJ-94.

"I am not!" yelled XJ-78, frustrated. "I swear it! Look, the doors open!"

He pointed towards the door.

"So, what does that prove?" asked XJ-94. "Doors are normally always open anywhere, it probably an old door, with a weak lock."

The two robots moved inside, Zak then signalled the men to make their move.

In the small room, the guards looked around the area. After a moment, the robot spoke.

"Look as this!" exclaimed XJ-78, pointing at the broken grill, which was on the floor instead of attached to the vent.

"That's odd," said XJ-94, examining the grill, "isn't it supposed to be—" he was cut short, an electric shock caused him to collapse on his knees and fall to the ground.

"Supposed to be what?" asked XJ-78, with curiosity. "XJ-94?"

He turned, looked to the ground and saw his robotic friend, not moving. He was about to alert the whole building on his com-link, only to become face to face with a black figure, with four others behind him.

"Ahh! Security, there are—!"

He was suddenly kicked into his metal chest.

Hard.

Causing him to malfunction, before falling to the ground beside his electric-shocked friend, unconscious.

"Nice work, Bob," said Zak. _'These Grummel creatures (whatever they were), __**seriously**__ needed to upgrade their defences on these robots.'_

He was cut short when an alarm was sounded throughout the whole building.

"Oh, crap," he said with great annoyance. _"Go!"_

He ordered his men to go through the door which they just unlocked and went further into the building.

* * *

The five were running as fast as they could, avoiding robot guards searching for them.

Directed by their leader Zak, they managed to get to a nearby door which had an X-90 security lock installed.

A stealth bomb would not work on this sort of door.

Teeth clenched in anger, Zak eyes scanned around the area, searching for anything that could open this piece of crap blocking their objective.

He noticed a small panel on the right of the security door… an ID scanner.

_'Great, we don't have an ID, unless…'_

"Stop!"

The five turned to see one guard robot, pointing a Combustor directly at them.

Zak snickered slightly, "Where's the rest of the guards? Did they run off?"

"Silence!" yelled the robot, squeezing the trigger slightly. "I don't need others, I got my skills!"

"Oh really?" asked Zak, still chuckling. "An average robot holding a Combustor, who doesn't need back-up? I think you're mistaken."

"I'm _not _average!" screamed the robot, putting more pressure on the trigger, "I'm a class-one!"

_'Class-one!' _Zak screamed in his mind. _'That means he could have access to this door!'_

"You're going to regret calling me 'average', boy," said the class-one robot.

Zak silently signalled one of his men to sneak up on him. Since the robot is too busy going on about himself, he'll be distracted while one of Zak's men sneaked around the room and behind him to take him out.

"You know," said the robot, after a moment of silence, "I met scum like you before, who insulted me like that, and do you know what I did to them?"

_'I wouldn't like to find out.' _thought Zak, as he eyed the robot and the man who sneaked up behind him, his stun gun at the ready.

The robot squeezed more on the trigger; the gun was about a millimetre away of going off.

"…I shot them in the chest, and kicked them right in the—" the robot suddenly froze, and fell down to the ground without another word.

"Nice one," said Zak to the man who stunned him, "Now let's see if he has identification on him anywhere."

The searched the unconscious robot, after a few moments, they found some sort of imprint in the palm of his hand. Zak then took the miniature flamethrower from his belt, put the muzzle of it up to the robot's wrist, and pulled the trigger.

Hot blue flame came from the muzzle of the gun and cut through the robot's wrist without any problems. Zak the picked up the hand (slightly flinched from the heat), and placed it against the scanner of the door.

The computer scanned the imprint from the hand and the spoke.

_Scan complete. ID Recognised. XJ-325, Class-One. Access Granted._

There was the sound of clicking from the door as it unlocked, it then opened a second later. The five scrambled into the door without hesitation.

* * *

Meanwhile, two robot security guards were waiting patiently by a door, with guns in their hands.

"He should have been back by now," said one of them.

"Maybe we should check on him, to see how he's going with the intruders" said the other.

"No, he said wait here!"

"Just because he's class-one and he thinks he's better than other robots, so he doesn't need back-up! I'm going in."

"No! He said wait here!"

The robot followed the other into the next room.

"Gosh," he said to his companion, "you're really such a—"

He stopped speaking, he saw to his horror, the class-one robot lying unconscious on the ground, with his hand completely melted off.

* * *

The five walked into the cargo room and the stood still on the spot, before them, was their prize.

It was about five metres high, and a metre in width. It was shaped like a claw with four pincer-like prongs which pointed upwards from the four corners of its base, each of the prongs was a small laser, which curved outward from it and curved back inward towards each other. The reason being was because in the centre of the base, was a larger laser that was pointed straight up, beyond the small four curved ones which were positioned towards the end of the taller one. When it was powered up, the four smaller lasers fired at the end of the taller one, to charge up the power of the laser.

Zak was gobsmacked at the beauty of the laser, before realising they could not carry it out of the building; he looked around searching for anything that would transport this laser out.

He noticed a cargo ship on the far side of the hold; it had a huge disc-like panel hanging from it… it was a magnet. It's designed to lift heavy cargo such as crates and place them on its back. By its design, it is sure to lift this 2-ton laser.

Signalling his men, Zak rushed over to the transport. Breaking a window, he went inside the ship, noticing the keys were still in the ignition, he started it.

There was the sound of the transport ship as the two robots stood over the unconscious class-one robot guard wondering what happened; they turned to see the transport ship moving towards the claw-like laser.

"Halt! You have _no _right to move that transport!" said one of the robots, running towards the moving ship, with his companion following behind him.

Zak, not paying attention to the robot guards, started loading the laser onto the ship by using one the ship's magnet, with his team on the back of the transport helping load it on.

The ship magnet attached itself to the laser and began to pull it up.

"I _said _halt!" said the robot again, pointing his gun at him, "Get out of the transport and surrender peacefully, or we'll use force!"

Still ignoring, Zak loaded the laser onto the ship with the magnet, the laser set itself onto the transport, the others on the ship started to tie it down.

"Your choice…" said the robot, he and his companion fired their guns.

Zak ducked behind the dashboard of the ship, avoiding fire from the robots. His com-link buzzed to life as a voice came through.

_"Zak, we have it tied down, it's all ready to go."_

Zak picked up the com-link and spoke into it, "Good, now quickly open the cargo door on the far side of the building. Hurry!"

One of the men jumped from the transport and rushed over to a nearby control panel, after a few seconds the cargo door opened, the figure ran back to the transport and jumped inside.

The robots kept firing, but still could not get them to surrender. Zak and the others were all inside the transport, the ship begun to start its engines and, after a few moments it flew out of the hold through the door and disappeared from the robots view.

The transport flew away from GrummelNet HQ, as it did; Zak reached for his com-link and set up a link to his executive as he was driving away from the city.

"Sir… we have the Geo-laser."

* * *

Somewhere on the other side of the galaxy, someone was sitting at his desk; the place was quite expensive, paintings hung on the walls of his office, a glass chandelier hung from the golden-like roof, documents practically on every bookshelf, and of course his rare black wooden desk and leather chair shining in the glow of the light. The whole place was worth practically millions.

He was speaking into the com-link on the table beside him.

"Excellent," he said. "Bring it to our base as soon as possible; watch out for the Galactic Authorities."

_"Will do, sir," _said Zak on the com-link, before cutting off.

The man relaxed in his leather chair, opened a nearby drawer in his desk and brought out a bottle of whiskey and a glass, opening the cap of the bottle; he poured some into the glass and drank it. He then pressed one of the buttons on his com-link and spoke to his secretary.

"Ms. Jones, tell the scientist we have the laser ready for transport."

"Right away, Mr. Aaron, sir," said the secretary on the com-link.

Aaron put his feet up on the desk, the glass in one hand and the bottle of whisky in the other; he poured himself another round as he thought to himself.

_'Soon, all those who refuse to co-operate shall be destroyed at my hand'_

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet & Clank, all rights go to Insomniac Games.

Author's Notes: This is the updated version of the prologue, fixed errors and other parts not needed or are now arranged.


	2. Chapter 1: Bad Dreams

In another section of the city, was a very tall apartment building, almost one mile off the city's ground level. Inside the apartment were at least 10000 rooms and 250 floors (40 rooms on each level), plus the reception desk on ground floor. This was one of the most luxurious and popular buildings on the planet. Rich people would spend their visit or holiday in the city by renting one of these rooms, some people practically _live _in this building, since they enjoy the excitement of the city or just for the service. At least 500 robot employers worked their daily shifts in the building.

Actually, they worked _all year_.

Since they only need to charge for about half an hour, all the visitors (and the people who live) in the building get all their needs.

The apartment building was also very popular because one of the galaxy's most popular heroes lived here.

He was up on the 157th floor, room 6268. After the intergalactic war from the crazed Qwark-fan Stewart Zurgo, he'd been relaxing in this apartment for the past few months, getting the break he deserved.

His name was Ratchet; standing at 5'2", he's a Lombax who is now the last of his kind in the universe. He had golden-like fur with brown stripes on every square centimetre of his body, emerald-iris eyes, long pointed ears and a tail.

A few hours after the breaking and entering of GrummelNet HQ, he was laying in his bed, tossing and turning, trying to shake something out of his head as he slept. In his head, voices invaded his mind.

* * *

_"We needed to make sure you survived, now it's time to come home," the Zoni said to Clank._

_"Whoa, Clank, are these the Zoni?" asked Ratchet, Clank didn't respond._

_"The time has come sire, to learn who you are, and who you will become," the Zoni said as they lifted Clank higher._

_"Let. Him. Go!" warned Ratchet._

_"It is time to understand your purpose; it is time to come with us," said the Zoni._

_"Yes, time to come with you," said Clank._

_"Clank!" yelled Ratchet._

_Clank disappeared along with the Zoni. The scene changed._

_"You still haven't given me a straight answer," said Ratchet to Alister, "Now why aren't you with the Lombaxes?"_

_"Because I failed them!" Alister yelled, "I failed them… I made a mistake."_

_The scene changed again, this time with voices bundled altogether. _

_"COWARDS! All of them!" yelled Tachyon. _

_"This is your responsibility, you can't just walk away. The Lombaxes need us!" said Alister._

_"You can't kill me, Lombax! Only I know your true purpose in this galaxy! Only I know your true name!" yelled Tachyon._

_"DON'T walk away from me!" yelled Alister._

_"The Cragmite return is inevitable, your kind will never be safe!" screamed Tachyon. "Do you hear me?!"_

_"I… said… STOP!" screamed Alister._

_"NEVER!" screamed Tachyon._

* * *

Ratchet eyes snapped open as he suddenly jolted up from his sleeping position, breathing heavily, his face covered in sweat. He put a furry un-gloved hand up to his forehead and closed his eyes.

"Another nightmare," he said.

He then lay back down on his bed, still trying to recover from his dilemma, and closed his eyes. Trying to go back to sleep, he then opened his eyes and turned his head to the direction of his bedside clock.

_3:47_

He sighed at the digital clock, then turned his head to the other side of the bed and closed his eyes, hoping to turn the last few hours of night-time into sleep.

After a few minutes, still awake; he then turned back to the clock.

_3:52_

He sighed again. "Well, if I can't get to sleep, there's no point of being in bed," he said, as he pulled the sheet off himself, and slowly stood up from the bed. He put on a pair of his old blue trousers over his boxers, which he wore to bed, and walked out of his bedroom.

Staggering slightly from the exhaustion, he walked into the living room of his apartment; his red-cracked emerald eyes scanned the dark living room. He eyed over to the kitchen and, felt a bit of dryness in his throat, walked over to the fridge. He opened the door, bright light of the fridge penetrated the dark kitchen; his eyes burned slightly from the coldness of the fridge as he eyed the contents, jug of water, bottle of juice, cans of soda, carton of milk…

At first he reached for the milk, but then said, "Ah, whatever, I'll have the soda, since I'm not going back to sleep."

Taking a can out of the fridge, he shut the door. Light from the fridge disappeared as he walked over to the couch in the living room. He was just a few metres away from the couch when—"Gah!"

He stubbed his toe on the leg of the small table.

His tail tensed as he held his injured foot in one hand and soda in the other, his other foot got caught on the edge of the carpet, he then collapsed onto the couch in one big heap. "Son of a—!"

He stopped speaking as he noticed his robot pal, Clank charging on a nearby power-point against the wall. His painful frown slowly turned into a smile as he watched Clank, sleeping peacefully with his arms and legs tucked into his body.

_'At least he can sleep without any problems' _Ratchet thought to himself as he eyed his robot pal.

He turned to his soda, reached for the ring pull, and – _pfffssstt _– opened the can. Putting it up to his mouth, he drank some, he felt the cold fuzz of liquid go down his throat as he swallowed. Still, the dryness of his throat did not dissipate.

He put the can down on the table and put his leg up on the couch. He looked at his clawed toe, bruised from the recent impact of the table, he still felt the pain. He rubbed it, hoping the pain would cease quicker. While he was doing so, he didn't notice the soft clanking of metallic feet which came up beside him.

"Ratchet?"

The robot voice startled the Lombax; he jumped slightly, and turned to see Clank beside him standing on the floor, bright green eyes staring into his emerald ones.

"Oh, hey pal," said the Lombax, smiling, as he put his foot back down on the floor.

"Sorry, did I startle you?" asked Clank.

"Nah, you didn't," said Ratchet, reaching for his soda. "Did I wake you, though?"

"Well," started the robot, with slight amusement, "I did hear the bump of the table, you collapsing onto the couch, and some muffled cursing."

Ratchet chuckled, "Yeah, it was quite a _trip_ to the couch."

He laughed again as he drank more of the soda. He expected Clank to laugh as well but the robot continued to stare at the Lombax.

After a few moments, Clank spoke, "What are you doing up so early? It's…" he turned his head to a nearby clock which hung on the wall. "…4 am"

Ratchet thought for a second.

"I woke up early," he lied. "Well, accidently. And when I couldn't get back to sleep, I decided to come out here."

Clank stared at him, Ratchet never usually wakes up this early, he was the kind of Lombax who slept in. Maybe something disturbed him from outside? Nope. Ratchet was a deep sleeper; he wouldn't be disturbed by anything during his sleep, apart from intruders who might come into the room at night, but there was none.

"Are you sure?" asked Clank. "You're the kind of Lombax who enjoys sleep."

"Clank, it's all right, I just woke up early, ok?" said Ratchet.

Clank refused to believe Ratchet, something inside the Lombax refused to come out. Clank thought of something else that would disturb his sleep, and then found the answer…

"Nightmares?" asked Clank.

Ratchet turned his head to the robot.

"What? No." he said, dismissively.

Clank raised an eyebrow, although, an eyelid (since he had no eyebrows), to show his seriousness.

Ratchet noticed this, then sighed, "…yeah."

Clank just stared blankly at the Lombax, ever since Alister's death at the Great Clock, Ratchet has been having nightmares. Clank thought they were gone from the Lombax since they and Qwark had to team up with Nefarious on planet Magnus to stop someone known as Ephemeris the Creature Collector, but it seems they have come back. The only thing to cure it was hero's duty, and there weren't any problems in the galaxy since the war from Stuart Zurgo for months.

"Was this the first nightmare?" said Clank.

Ratchet remained silent for a moment, then said "No, I had one last night, and the night before."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" asked Clank.

Ratchet sighed again "I thought it wasn't a problem,"

Clank turned away from Ratchet, there's no point of having a conversation about something that Ratchet didn't think was a concern. There was silence; the two of them didn't talk for minutes, until Ratchet finally spoke.

"I wished Alister just listened to me earlier," he said, his ears drooping a bit. "Then none of this would've happened. He'd still be here, I would visit him often, and everything would've been great. It's my fault."

Clank listened to the sadness in Ratchet's voice; the robot knew the Lombax needed comfort. Clank climbed onto the couch, sat down next to Ratchet, and put a robotic hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault, Ratchet, we all make mistakes," said Clank. "There was nothing you could have done. Alister would not want you to mourn over his own death. Your mother and father would not want that either. They don't want you to blame yourself for their mistakes."

Ratchet buried his face in his hands, trying to hide the tears as he wiped his eyes and nose with his figures. He did not want Clank to see him upset, but Clank probably already knew.

Ratchet can still remember the incident at the Great Clock, he was trying to stop Alister from using the Clock as a time machine, but Alister already initiated the time shift by using the master switch.

* * *

_After minutes of battling each other, Alister fell to his knees, beaten by Ratchet. The centre of the chamber rose up from underneath, and opened up, revealing the master switch. Ratchet ran to the centre of the chamber, up to the switch and pulled, but it would not budge._

_Lying on the floor, Alister looked up at Ratchet, and noticed he was fooling with his plans._

_"No!" he screamed, "What are you DOING?!"_

_Ratchet ignored him, "Come on…" he muttered under his breath, as he pulled harder._

_He pulled with all his strength, but it was stuck, then…_

_Snap!_

_The switch broke off, leaving just the stump of it in the slot, causing Ratchet to stumble off the centre platform. A beam of energy burst upwards from the centre and into the circuitry on the roof, causing it to malfunction and fall apart. Wind mixed with energy swirled around the chamber, as small bolts of electricity rained down._

_Alister rose off the ground as Ratchet did the same._

_"It's not working!" said Alister. "Why isn't it working?!"_

_"Because it's not a time machine, Alister!" said Ratchet. "The Clock wasn't meant to alter time, only KEEP it!"_

_"30 seconds until total system failure" said the computer inside the Clock._

_Ratchet tried to reach for the broken switch, but another wave of energy came up through the floor in front of him, causing him to fly back and hit the floor. _

_Alister looked around as the Clock was falling apart, he bowed his head as he realised his mistake. _

_"I'm so sorry," he said quietly._

_As Ratchet got back up to reach for the switch again, but Alister ran up to him._

_"No," said Alister, "let me!"_

_Alister started to make his way towards the centre platform of the chamber._

_"What are you going to do?!" Ratchet yelled above the noise of the Clock falling apart._

_Alister stopped at the broken switch, and turned to the younger Lombax._

_"Take care of yourself, Ratchet!" he said, and with that, he put his Praetorian OmniWrench onto the stump of the master switch in the slot where it broke off. Locking the wrench in place, he pushed it with all his strength, the wrench moved slightly; he pushed even harder, until…_

_Click._

_The stump of the broken switch moved to its other side of the slot, stopping the time shift._

_Ratchet looked up; a powerful burst of quantum energy came out of the circuitry from the roof. Ratchet ran away along with Clank to take cover. Alister was suddenly hit by the wave of energy, there was the sound of an explosion as everything went white._

_A few moments later, the blinding flash disappeared, the Praetorian OmniWrench still in the switch's place, with electricity sparking from it._

_Ratchet and Clank, who were knocked to the ground by the impact, got back up. Ratchet turned his head and saw Alister, lying on the ground, not moving._

_Ratchet walked up to the body of the elder._

_"Alister?" he said._

_No response._

_Ratchet realized he was gone; he looked beside Alister, and noticed his gold pocket watch open face-up on the ground. He bent down and picked it up. Looking at it, he saw the picture of his father Kaden, alongside Alister, smiling, with his sliver OmniWrench in his hand. The gears on the right of the picture that were once moving, were now broken and stiff._

_He looked back at the body of Alister and knelt down beside him._

_"He did a very brave thing, Ratchet," said Clank, behind him. "You should be proud of him."_

_Ratchet didn't respond as he continued to stare at the dead body of the general._

* * *

Returning to reality, Ratchet lifted his face from his hands. He noticed Clank still sitting beside him, looking up at the Lombax. Ratchet noticed the pocket watch he kept from Alister as a memento lying on the table. He slowly stood up and walked towards it, and reached for the pocket watch. Opening it, he saw the picture of Alister and his father; he sat back on the couch and continued to stare at it when Clank spoke again.

"Ratchet," he said, "I know you miss Alister and your parents. But, remember, they'll always be in here, your heart…" Clank pointed towards the Lombax's chest. "…forever."

Ratchet looked up from the watch and towards Clank, the robot's glowing green eyes lighting the darkness, then after a moment, Ratchet put his arms around his robot pal and hugged him. Clank patted Ratchet's bare back as the Lombax held him in his arms. Ratchet then broke the embrace, looked at the pocket watch one more time, then closed it. A few minutes went by before Ratchet spoke.

"Do you think we'll find them?" asked the Lombax.

"Who?" asked Clank.

"The Lombaxes," replied Ratchet, "if they did go into another dimension, do you think we might find them?"

Clank stared at the Lombax, knowing that the question Ratchet gave was going to be difficult to answer. After a moment, the robot spoke.

"I'm not sure," said Clank, Ratchet just stared disappointedly at Clank.

"But," Clank began again, "don't give up hope, we will find them eventually. I promise."

Ratchet smiled at Clank, knowing his robot pal couldn't give a better response; Ratchet put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Thanks, pal," he said.

Ratchet looked at the clock on the wall.

_4:23_

He stretched him arms and yawned, feeling the tiredness in his eyes, he started getting sleepy again.

"You look tired, Ratchet," said Clank. "Are you going to bed?"

"Nah," said Ratchet. "I'm just gonna lie on the couch for a bit."

"Ok, Ratchet," said Clank, as he jumped off the couch, and back to his charging spot. "Goodnight" he said to Ratchet, before he tucked his arms and legs into his body and resumed charging his battery.

"Yeah, goodnight," Ratchet responded. He lay down on the couch, he spread his legs so one of them was off the couch and the other was lying on the head rest, Ratchet then yawned again.

_'I wish these nightmares would just leave me alone,' _thought Ratchet. _'I really miss Alister, he said I looked just like my father, I wish he was still here.' _he looked over at Clank. _'It's good to have Clank as a friend; he's the only family I have, apart from Talwyn, Cronk, Zephyr and… Qwark.' _

He shivered, it was either from the coldness or the idea of Qwark as family would be a nuisance, and… disturbing.

Ratchet's eyes started to close as he lied on the couch, tiredness overwhelmed him as he drifted off back to sleep.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank, all rights go to Insomniac Games.

Author's Notes: This is the updated version of the chapter, if they're any mistakes or anything that doesn't make sense, just leave a note in the comments. Thanks. Read and Review!


	3. Chapter 2: The Latest News

"Ratchet? Ratchet?"

Ratchet, who was asleep on the couch, was awoken by a voice. As he opened his eyes, bright white light filled his vision. His eyelids flinched and then closed again due to the bright light hurting his emerald eyes. He opened them again; he eyes did not burn from the light as he covered his face with his un-gloved hand.

After a few minutes, with his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he eyed around the room. He saw Clank, standing beside him, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Ratchet sat up from his sleeping position.

"Morning, pal," he said, smiling, still a bit blinded by the light.

"What do you want for breakfast?" asked Clank.

"Huh?" said the Lombax, as he rubbed his eyes.

"Breakfast," replied the robot, "the waiter outside wants to know what you want to order."

"Oh, ok," said Ratchet. Clank handed him the paper he was holding, Ratchet looked at it and realized it was a breakfast menu. After looking through the list, Ratchet then spoke.

"I'll have the… Toppling Tower," he said, as he handed the menu back to Clank.

"…without butter." Ratchet finished. Clank nodded as he went back to the door, where the waiter was… waiting.

Ratchet heard Clank telling his order to the waiter, as he eyed the Alister's pocket watch on the table. Ratchet still remembered what had happened last night… the nightmare… the conversation…

He eyed over to the clock on the wall.

_9:52_

He stood up from the couch, stretched his arms, and picked up the can of soda he had last night. Ratchet walked over to the kitchen, up to the sink and tipped out the remains of the soda. After throwing the can in the bin, he sat back down on the couch.

Clank walked back from the door over to Ratchet.

"Ratchet," he said. "I gave the waiter your order; he said it'll take about 15 minutes before your breakfast is ready."

"Alright," said Ratchet. "In the meantime, I'm just gonna have a quick shower, Okay?"

Ratchet stood up from the couch and went to the bathroom.

After he showered, got dressed into a clean set of clothes, he walked out of the bathroom. Still shaking his head to try getting the water out of his ears, he spotted his breakfast on the table, all ready to be eaten by the Lombax.

The 'Toppling Tower' he ordered, were five, thick pikelets with syrup spread all over the top, which leaked out over the other pikelets and onto the plate.

"Huh, Clank must've gotten my breakfast for me," said Ratchet, as he walked over to the couch and sat down. He took the knife and fork from beside the plate, he was about to eat his breakfast when he forgot something.

"Oh, wait… I need to get a drink," he said, as he walked over to the fridge and brought out the juice. He opened the cupboard, looking for a glass, and realized there weren't any. Thinking, he thought how he was going to drink juice without a glass.

"Ah, whatever," he said, "I'll do it the teenage way."

He placed the whole bottle of juice on the table beside his breakfast, as he sat back down on the couch. He was about to start eating when…

"Hold on…" he said, as he was lifting the pikelets, one by one, checking for something. Clank then appeared beside Ratchet.

"What are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the Lombax's hands.

Ratchet spotted Clank beside him standing on the floor.

"I'm just checking…" replied Ratchet.

"For what?"

"For… butter," said the Lombax.

Clank sighed, "Ratchet, there isn't any butter on the pikelets, they didn't put any on it."

"I don't know…" said Ratchet, eyeing his breakfast, suspiciously, "They can be very sneaky those chefs, trying to slip a piece of butter in between my favourite breakfast meal."

"Ratchet," said Clank, firmly, "there _isn't _any butter on it… I _told _them _not _to put any on it… so just eat it for crying out loud."

"Alright," said Ratchet, as he shoved a bit of pikelet into his mouth. "If I was lactose intolerant, I'd blame you."

"Well, at least you don't have an allergy to nuts; I'd love to see you puff up like a balloon. No, wait… a _furry _balloon!" Clank blowed.

"Clank…" said Ratchet, eying Clank, "I'm trying to eat here." The Lombax shoved another piece of pikelet in his mouth, syrup dripping off his chin, as he went back to his breakfast.

Clank narrowed his eyes as he stared at the Lombax, watching him eat his breakfast.

"That's how you eat?" he said.

Ratchet turned back to the robot. "What?" he said, with half-chewed pikelets in his mouth.

"Look at you, at the age of 25, saving the galaxy, being a hero… and yet, you still eat like a 4-year old."

"Well, at least I can _taste_ food." back chatted the Lombax. Ratchet reached for the bottle of juice beside his breakfast, opened the cap, and put the bottle up to his mouth and drank some. He put the bottle back down and cut another piece of pikelet.

"Don't drink juice out of the bottle." said Clank. "Get a glass."

"There weren't any," said Ratchet, mouth filled with chewed pikelets as he swallowed. "I checked the cupboard myself."

"And why is that then, huh?" said Clank, putting his arms to his sides. "Did you forget to wash them last night? Of course you did."

"I can't keep track of _everything_!" said Ratchet, putting his knife and fork down. "I have other stuff to do."

"Like what?" said Clank.

"Ah, well, there's… um, urr… sorting out my weaponry, cleaning my wrench, urr… sorting out my weaponry—"

"You already said that!" said Clank.

"I know! I keep on having to use them, they get messed up!"

Clank eyed the Lombax with frustration, '_I have to do everything for the Lombax… EVERYTHING.' _said Clank in his mind._ 'And it's starting to drive me crazy! Ratchet's 25 years old… 25! He should sort things out for himself. He was getting too old for this!'_

Ratchet resumed eating his breakfast; his furry chin soaked from the syrup, as he stuffed more pikelets into his mouth. He swallowed; he coughed a few times, trying to get his breakfast down his throat.

"You're eating too fast, Ratchet," said Clank. "Don't try to see how much food you can swallow at once, slow down and eat normally."

"Define normal," said Ratchet, as he eyed his robot pal.

Clank didn't answer; he just stared at his friend, who went back to his breakfast. Clank watched as Ratchet ate his pikelets, a piece of his breakfast was stuck to his syrup-stained chin, it slowly slid of and fell to the floor with a silent splat.

Clank sighed, "Why do you eat that thing anyway?"

"I like pikelets," said Ratchet, turning his head to Clank.

"I know, but…" said Clank, "that sort of food is not good for you, for the last few weeks you've been ordering nothing but pikelets for breakfast. Why don't you just order something else for a change? Like cereal. I looked at the breakfast menu and noticed it has very high levels of nutrition, that sort of stuff you eating right now contains high levels of sugar, it's not good for your body, I tell you."

Ratchet just stared blankly at the robot, "So, what? Are you trying to stop me from eating my favourite food?"

"No, that's not what I meant. All I meant was—" started the robot. "It doesn't matter now, just eat it. But don't blame me if you get fat."

Ratchet continued to eat the rest of his breakfast as he spoke. "At least there's no butter on it."

Clank narrowed his eyes, been yet, outsmarted by the Lombax.

There was a knock at the door of their apartment.

"I'll get it," said Clank, as he moved towards the door.

But the door burst open, as the famous green hero stood in the doorway.

"Hello, faithful sidekicks!" said Qwark, as he entered their apartment. Since he was over 10ft tall, he had to bend his back down slightly to avoid hitting the roof, as he walked up to the two heroes. He eyed Ratchet on the couch eating his breakfast.

"Hey, Ratchet buddy," said Qwark, as he patted Ratchet back. Although to Ratchet, it was more of a punch then a pat, caused him to cough up some of his breakfast. Qwark sat down on the couch, causing Ratchet to jump a little.

"Qwark!" said Ratchet, as he swallowed his coughed up breakfast. "How the hell did you get in here?"

Qwark gave a cheesy smile as he held up a spare key, with their room number on it.

"Why did they give you a spare key to our apartment?" said Ratchet.

"Why wouldn't they? Not give me… the greatest… awesomeness… super hero in the galaxy… a key to your apartment?" said Qwark, smiling, as he flexed his muscles.

Ratchet put a hand up to his forehead and shook his head.

"Yeah, well Qwark," said Ratchet, "I appreciate you coming, but I'm trying to eat here."

Ratchet put another piece of pikelet as Qwark watched him.

"What, that crap," said Qwark, eying his breakfast.

"That's what I talked to Ratchet about," said Clank, as he walked to the couch and pulled himself onto it and sat down.

"Oh, so now you're on Qwark's side, are ya?" Ratchet said to Clank, in between Qwark and the robot.

"No, I'm not," said Clank, Qwark gave a disappointed look, "I'm just worried about your health. For the past few weeks you've been ordering nothing else then that for breakfast."

"For three weeks…?" said Qwark, shocked, as he looked at the Lombax. "You've been ordering that for three weeks! I think you've been spoilt enough, Ratchet. Even _I _haven't been that spoilt in years!"

Ratchet turned his head to Qwark, Qwark noticed Ratchet's syrup-stained chin, and began laughing. Ratchet raised an eyebrow.

"You think that's funny?" said the Lombax, eying Qwark, who kept laughing. Qwark didn't respond, only laughter came through the green hero's huge mouth.

Ratchet then picked up one of his whole syrup-covered pikelets on his breakfast plate, and placed it in his hand. Qwark didn't notice, he just kept laughing, with his eyes closed trying to stop his 'tears of laughter' coming out.

Ratchet then slammed the pikelet into Qwark's face, causing syrup to splatter on Qwark's green shirt and onto the couch. The laughter stopped as Qwark noticed what just happened. Ratchet's breakfast slowly slid off the Captain's face, and splattered on his lap, leaving syrup all over his masked face.

"Ok, that… was uncalled for, you messy keister, you," said Qwark, as he brought out a napkin and wiped the syrup and bits of Ratchet's breakfast off his face.

Ratchet grinned, "Well, look who's talking." The Lombax laughed.

Clank, who had been watching the whole thing, just shook his head at their stupidity. After Qwark got all the syrup of his face, he took the pikelet of his leg and put it back on Ratchet's plate.

"Hey! Don't put that back on my plate!" said Ratchet, annoyed, "That's been on you face! Great, now I can't eat it now."

"Ha ha," said Qwark, pointing at Ratchet, "you've just been Qwark-edified!"

Ratchet just sighed, shaking his head.

"Qwark," he said. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Well, I just came by to see how my sidekicks are going," said the Captain. "Oh, and also… this."

He reached into his pocket, digging around until he found it, and brought out a holo-disc. Its casing had Qwark's writing on the front, it was a bit difficult for Ratchet and Clank to read, but they made it out. It read:

_Polaris Morning News, Channel 7, 6 to 8 am._

Ratchet took it from Qwark and had a good look, he noticed the date, it was todays.

"This is the updated news from this morning," said Ratchet, as he handed it back to Qwark.

"Yep," said Qwark, "it's about a break-in at GrummelNet."

Ratchet ears perked up at that sentence. "Break-in…?"

Qwark nodded, then walked up to the TV in the living room, took out the disc, and put it in the holo-player. Qwark sat back down on the couch, causing Ratchet and Clank to jump.

Two radio reporters appeared on screen, a man with black hair and a moustache and a woman with short brown hair, sitting at a large table with a huge 7 in the background. The three heroes on the couch

"Good morning, Polaris," said the man. "I'm Kip Darling."

"And I'm Pepper Fairbanks" said the woman, who was beside Kip.

"In breaking news this morning," said Kip. "There has been a break-in at GrummelNet HQ. Five men stormed the facility at around midnight last night and stole some valuable equipment. Two robot guards identified the men but they escaped in a transport with the equipment soon after."

"Three robots were badly damaged during the robbery," said Pepper, reading from her notes. "One of which, had his hand completely cut of at the wrist," Ratchet payed attention by that comment, "which was used by the robbers to gain access one of the doors of the facility."

"The transport was last seen just off Nundac Asteroid Ring, the city's police urge anyone with information of the whereabouts of these criminals, to contact the Galactic Authorities as soon as possible," said Kip.

The recording of the news stopped, showing nothing but black. Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark just sat in silence, until the Lombax spoke.

"…with his hand completely cut off," said Ratchet, slightly disturbed, _'Sure, robots can get a replacement hand, but someone actually cut off someone else's hand just to open a door is… horrific.'_

"So, they managed to break into GrummelNet," said Clank, "they must've been very well trained to get past security there."

"Not what I heard," said Ratchet, "They say security there hasn't been upgraded for a while, because they're too busy with their products."

Clank thought for about a second before turning to Qwark.

"Qwark, where did you get this recorded information from?"

"From the Galactic Authorities," replied Qwark, "as soon as they got the recording, they gave me a copy."

"Yea, why _wouldn't _they?" said Ratchet, sarcastically.

Qwark narrowed his eyes slightly at the Lombax, as Clank spoke again.

"Did the authorities give you other information?" he asked. "Like what the criminals stole?"

"They said they stole something called a Giro… a Gigo… a 'Geo-Laser', that's it," said Qwark, confused, "I don't know what that is."

"A Geo-Laser…" said Clank, thinking, "I heard GrummelNet making that sort of thing to improve their products."

"Yea, that's it… I think," said Qwark, still confused.

"A Geo-Laser?" said Ratchet, turning to Clank. "What's that?"

"A Geo-Laser is a laser designed by GrummelNet is to improve their technology," said Clank, "by fuelling it with Raritanium, it is then attached to the machine which makes the weapons, and installs the products with the Raritanium energy, making them more resistant and powerful."

"Wow," said the Lombax, surprised. "I got to get me some of _those_ weapons."

"But it appears they stole it before the company could use it," said Clank, "but what I don't know… is why would they steal something like this? There are other, much more valuable pieces of equipment in that facility. But why would they steal this laser. It's only designed for weapons. Something's not right…"

"Well," started Ratchet, "let's hope the Galactic Authorities catch them and put a stop to whatever they're doing." The three became silent, although Qwark fell asleep on the couch, bored from Ratchet and Clank's conversation.

Then Ratchet remembered something else from the news report "Wait!" he blurted out. "Didn't they say the transport was last seen in the Nundac Asteroid Ring?"

"Yes," said Clank, remembering the report. "They did say that."

"Well, that's where Apogee Space Station is, right?" said Ratchet, standing up, "We should go there now."

"Why?" asked Clank. "Surely the Galactic Authorities will sort this out."

"Clank, do the Galactic Authorities send out people to find criminals, track down bad guys and stop evil in the universe?"

"Well, no, not really," said Clank, "they only wait for people who have information about the criminal's whereabouts, then do something about it."

"Exactly," said Ratchet, walking away from the couch.

Ratchet walked into his room and picked up some of his arsenal, a Combustor, Buzz Blade gun, his old Fusion Grenade glove, some spare ammo, and of course, his OmniWrench Millennium 12, and put them in his pocket (how he managed to do that, God knows). He then put on his gloves and his old pilot suit. He walked out of his room and back to Clank, "Are you coming or not?"

"Ye-yes, Ratchet," said Clank, as he jumped off the couch to Ratchet. Ratchet and Clank were about to walk out of their apartment, when Clank spoke.

"Ur, Ratchet?" said Clank, Ratchet tuned to face him. "You might want to get that syrup of your chin first."

Ratchet put a hand up to his face and felt the syrup, still stuck on his chin.

"Ah, right," he said, as he headed to the sink. There was the sound of running water, as Clank watched the Lombax rinse off his chin. After Ratchet made sure all the syrup was gone, he dried his chin and walked back to his robot pal.

"Ready?" said Clank.

"Yep," said Ratchet.

Ratchet and Clank opened the door and went out, then Ratchet called back to Qwark.

"See ya, Qwark!" said Ratchet, "Don't mess up our apartment!"

The door slammed shut, causing Qwark to wake up. He looked around, realizing he was alone.

"Wha…" he sighed, "Where did they go?" he stood up, looked around, but couldn't find them, "Oh, fine, leave me here to take care of everything."

He eyed around their apartment, and thought of something that made his smile.

"Yes, I _will _take care of everything," he said, laughing, as he reached for the phone on the wall. "You'll regret leaving me here Ratchet," he put the phone up to his ear. "Yes hello, room service…?"

* * *

Ratchet and Clank walked out of the building and into the parking area, where Aphelion, Ratchet's ship was parked.

"Aphelion?" said Ratchet, as he strode up to the ship.

"Who said what?" said Aphelion, as her blue lights through her armour glowed as she spoke. "Oh, hello Ratchet and Clank, where _have _you been? Do you know how long I've been sitting here for? A few months! The sun's bad for me if I just sit here! I just—"

"Look, Aphelion," started Ratchet, "I sorry, all right? I know I haven't driven you for quite a while, I was so caught up I must've forgotten about you."

"Forgotten me?!" said Aphelion, not amused, "How could you not remember me? I was sitting here for three months! I was—"

"Look," said Ratchet, "I said I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you. Clank and I were about to head to Apogee Space Station, so you can take us there."

"Oh, thank you, Ratchet," said Aphelion, happily. "You don't know how hard it was to be out here for months." She opened the cockpit window to the driver's seat as Ratchet and Clank hoped in. She closed it as she started up her engines; the ship rose from the ground and took off into the atmosphere of the planet.

A few minutes later, they were flying away from Igilak. Aphelion started up her hyper-space drive as coordinates to the Apogee Space Station was set into her computer. She then blasted into hyper-space, disappearing in a flash.

* * *

About half an hour of hyper-space travel, Ratchet and Clank sat inside Aphelion, with only about ten minutes 'till their destination. Clank finally spoke.

"I don't not see how you want to find that transport," he said, "the Galactic Authorities will find something out."

"Clank," sighed Ratchet, "I told you this before, the Galactic Authorities are slow. And besides, I haven't seen Talwyn in a while."

Clank looked at Ratchet oddly, "That's it? All this to see her?"

"What? No," said Ratchet, "Not _just _her, but also those two robots of hers, Cronk and Zephyr. And afterwards, we'll try to find that stolen transport."

Clank turned back to the front of the ship, bright streaks of light from stars flew by as Aphelion was in hyper-space, creating a tunnel of light as they travelled through.

"We're approaching Apogee Space Station," said Aphelion, "Exiting hyper-space."

The ship jolted slightly as it exited hyper-space, the streaks of light came back to pinpoints as Aphelion slowed down. Asteroids came into view, the Nundac Asteroid Ring; it consisted of three rings of hundreds of asteroids, which circled around Apogee Space Station, which was located in the centre. It was possible that the station created its own centre of gravity, attracting the asteroids around the whole station

The ship dodged the huge floating rocks, as Apogee Space Station stood before them. It was once home to a famous Markazian explorer, Max Apogee, Talwyn's father. He also was very well known inventor, he also founded Apogee Industries, and studied Lombax technology such as the Dimensionator. He disappeared during a space pirate chase, where he relocated the Dimensionator to planet Jasindu, his whereabouts are still unknown.

Talwyn believes her father is still alive, despite Cronk and Zephyr's objections, two old warbot caretakers of Talwyn, who constantly kept fighting each other (not literally) to see who was superior. Because of their age, they were falling apart, and kept on having to have replacement parts fitted.

"We're here," said Ratchet, as the ship flew towards the hanger bay of the station.

* * *

Meanwhile in Apogee Space Station, Talwyn Apogee was sitting at a table inside a room, looking at the screens connected to cameras around the whole station, which showed different areas around the entire thing. As she eyed the screens, she noticed a ship coming into the hanger bay, at first she thought it was an intruder but then she recognised the ship.

"That's Ratchet's ship," said Talwyn, as she stood up. She rushed out of the room and ran towards the hanger bay.

* * *

Aphelion landed inside hanger bay, her engines died down as she opened the cockpit window, with Ratchet and Clank hopping out. Ratchet looked around inside the hanger; it was still the same as he remembered it. He noticed Talwyn's ship, still the same as he saw it a while ago, the only thing that was different was Cornk and Zephyr's was still missing. It was stolen by Nefarious after Ratchet, Clank and Qwark teamed up with him to defeat someone known as the Loki Master, and it was still missing.

_'Still the same as I remembered,' _thought Ratchet as he eyed around the station.

"Ratchet!"

The Lombax turned to see Talwyn running up to him.

"Hey, Tal," said Ratchet. "How are you–_oof_!" The Lombax almost lost his balance as Talwyn threw her arms around Ratchet's shoulders; Ratchet had to wave his arms to avoid falling to the ground.

"Hey, Ratchet," said Talwyn, as she hugged him.

"Ur, Talwyn, can you let go of me, please?" asked the Lombax.

"Oh, sorry," said Talwyn, chuckling as she let go of Ratchet. "I just haven't seen you in a while."

"No, that's alright," said Ratchet, "just remind me when you are about to hug me, I almost lost my balance then."

Talwyn looked down and noticed Clank, and smiled as she knelt down by him. "Hey, Clank… you still look _so _cute!" she rubbed Clank's head, causing his antenna to curve back.

"He he he," chuckled Clank. "Why thank you, Ms. Apogee."

"So…" Talwyn said, as she stood up. "What are you two big heroes doing here?"

"We heard on the news about a break-in at GrummelNet," said Ratchet.

"Oh, yeah," said Talwyn, "I heard about that this morning."

"Well," said Ratchet, scratching his head, which was covered by some sort of leather helmet, "we heard about a stolen transport from the HQ and it was last seen in this area, carrying something known as a Geo-Laser, so we thought we'd search for it, but on the way we'd decided to stop here to see how you're doing."

Talwyn just stared at Ratchet, listening to his words, before replying.

"Oh… ok," she said. "Well it's nice of you to drop by—"

"Ms. Apogee?"

Talwyn turned, and saw one of her old warbots, Cronk, came out from a nearby door. "Ah," he said. "There you are, miss. I was wondering where you went—" he was cut short when he noticed Ratchet and Clank. "Hey Ratchet, Clank, how are ya?!" he walked up to the two heroes.

"Not bad, Cronk," said Ratchet, "You?"

"Yea, I'm all right," said the old warbot, his orange eye scanning them. "You two still look the same since I last saw ya both."

Ratchet chuckled slightly, "Yeah, I can say the same for you," he said, eying Cronk's old, rusted mechanical body.

"Oh, _very _funny," said Cronk, as he eyed them. "What are you two doing here anyhow?"

Ratchet explained everything about the break-in of GrummelNet and the stolen transport with the Geo-Laser to the old warbot.

"Hmm," said Cronk, "I heard about that laser thing… isn't it something that—"

"–GrummelNet is working on to make their products better, yes," finished Clank.

"Please don't interrupt," said Cronk, eying Clank and then turned back to Ratchet. "But if they stole it, it could only be used for—"

"–fuelling Raritanium into their weapons," interrupted Clank, again.

"I said _don't _interrupt," said Cronk, trying to keep calm.

"Sorry," said Clank.

Cronk turned again back to Ratchet, "So, where were—"

"I feel like if I stop talking for just a minute, I might not be able to talk again," said Clank.

"You won't be talking anymore if you keep _interrupting _me!" yelled Cronk.

"_Cronk!_" yelled Talwyn, "Calm down."

"Oh right, sorry," said Cronk, "after all the galactic wars I battled I've developed a bit of a temper."

Ratchet was confused, as he turned to Talwyn, "Just tell me _how _a robot can develop a temper? They aren't organic."

"I have absolutely no ide—," said Talwyn, but was interrupted by another voice.

"Cronk? Ms. Apogee? Where are you? I heard some yelling," said Zephyr, as he came through the door the previous warbot came through. "Ah, there you are! What are you two doing out he—" he noticed Ratchet and Clank. "Ah, Ratchet and Clank, haven't seen you two in a while."

"Yeah, we've been busy," said Ratchet.

"I heard you saved Solana from that Zurgo fella," said Zephyr, "was he as crazy as I thought he was?"

"Yeah," said Ratchet, "he was psycho as a horny toad!" he laughed. But Talwyn and the warbots stared at each other and shrugged, as they never heard of that native amphibian from Solana before. Ratchet noticed this and spoke again.

"It's a native toad from planet Veldin where I grew up," said Ratchet.

"Well, anyway, what are you two doing—" started Zephyr, but Cronk tapped him on the shoulder.

"They're here because of a stolen transport with valuable technology, which was taken from GrummelNet HQ," explained Cronk. Zephyr just stared at his old warbot friend.

"I was talking to _them_," he said, as he pointed to the two heroes.

"Yes, but they already told us what they were doing here… twice. They would not want to explain it again."

"It's all right, Cronk," said Ratchet, "I would've said it again anyway."

"But by how much you're talking," said Cronk, "you might lose your voice."

"Yeah," said Zephyr, "It'll be better to come out of _your _big mouth than his!"

"I do _not _have a big mouth!" yelled Cronk.

"Oh yes you do," said Zephyr, "Have a look at it in the mirror."

"Shut up!" yelled Cronk, "What about your mouth, huh? Look at the size of _that _mouth, everyone!" he pointed at Zephyr's mouth, which was very long and large.

"I do not!" yelled Zephyr into Cronk's face.

"Your mouth is so big… you sleep with you false teeth in a bucket!" yelled Cronk.

While the two warbots were arguing, Ratchet, Clank, and Talwyn were ignoring them as they went back to their conversation. Afterwards, Ratchet finished it off.

"Yeah, well we better get going," said Ratchet, about to turn back to their ship. "It was nice seeing you again, Tal."

"Wait, you're going now?" said Talwyn.

"Ur, yeah," said Ratchet, as he and Clank headed towards Aphelion. "We're going to search for that stolen transport and find whoever stole that laser."

"Well, I was wondering if you might stay a little longer," said Talwyn, "I can make you a coffee or something."

"No thanks, Tal," said Ratchet, "you already got more on your hands already," eying Cronk and Zephyr's argument.

"Alright Ratchet," said Talwyn, waving at them, "See ya later! Cronk! Zephyr! Ratchet and Clank are leaving."

"Oh yeah, see ya," said Cronk, waving while still looking at Zephyr.

"Yea, bye now," said Zephyr, still eying Cronk.

"Look at you," said Cronk; eying Zephyr, "your face looks like one of those waffle makers I brought years ago!"

"Yeah?" said Zephyr, "Well I got some news for you! Your mouth looks like a shredder!"

Ratchet just shook his head at their pathetic argument as he and Clank waved to Talwyn. They hoped into the ship as Aphelion closed the cockpit window, the ship powered its engines and took off into space from the station, leaving Talwyn and the two fighting robots in the hanger bay.

* * *

On the other side of the galaxy, in an unknown location, the executive, Aaron sat at his desk talking on the com-link.

_"Are you sure your trap will work?"_ said someone on the com-link.

"Yes, Carlson, it will work," said Aaron, sighing. "Those two creeps will not fool with our plans."

_"I don't know, Aaron,"_ said Carlson. _"These two heroes are not to be messed with, what if this fails?"_

"Carlson," said Aaron, "do you want to go with this plan or do I have to pull you of the project?"

_"No, sir,"_ said Carlson.

"Good," Aaron sighed, "Is the transport you stole from GrummelNet is at the asteroid belt?"

_"Yes, sir," _said Carlson on the com-link, _"as soon as we loaded the laser onto another transport, we set up the stolen one just off the Nundac Asteroid Ring, our men will wait patiently for the two to arrive."_

"Good job, Carlson," said Aaron, pleased. "As soon as Ratchet and Clank find that transport, your men will spring the trap."

_"Will do, Carlson out."_ he said before cutting off.

Aaron sat on his leather chair, smiling, waiting for the two heroes to perish.

"Watch out Ratchet and Clank," he said, "soon, you'll be drifting through the cosmos."

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank, all rights go to Insomniac Games.

Author's Notes: This is the updated version of this chapter, if they're any mistakes or anything that doesn't make sense, just leave a note in the comments. Thanks. Read and Review!


	4. Chapter 3: Ambush

"So, how are we going to find this transport?" said Ratchet, looking out through the cockpit window as Clank sat in the passenger seat beside him. The robot would want to look out for the transport, but even if he stood up on the seat, he could only see a fraction of the area outside, since he was only just above 2ft tall.

It's already been half an hour since they left Apogee Space Station, and they weren't having any luck.

"Well," said Clank, replying to Ratchet's comment, "it's already been 30 minutes, and there isn't any sign of a ship nearby."

There was silence for a moment; the sound of the engine can be heard from the back of the ship. Ratchet thought how else they would find this darn transport instead of looking out through the window, he then thought of a solution.

"Well," said Ratchet, wondering. "Isn't there some kind of detector that could find this transport?"

Clank accessed his memory banks, trying to find any information of tracking ship in space.

"Hmm," he said, "well, I'm not so sure about detectors, but there is a radar that can detect power sources from ships. Aphelion," he turned to the ship, "do you have a D-34 electronic radar installed?"

"Hmm," said Aphelion, thinking. "I don't have that sort of kind installed, but I got a G-87 power scanner."

Ratchet, who was confused by the conversation, spoke to the ship.

"Will that work in finding this thing?" he said.

"I'm pretty sure," said Aphelion, "It's sort of the same model. The only difference is a radar only picks up signals from ships, while a scanner scans for power sources nearby, _any_ power source, even from ships. Even half a volt of electricity will be found on my scanner."

"Alright then," said the Lombax, as Aphelion activated her scanner. Ratchet and Clank sat inside Aphelion, waiting for her to find anything of interest, minuted passed by… nothing.

Ratchet just sat in the driver's seat, with his arms crossed, and sighed. _'Why aren't we finding anything? Is the scanner broken?' _he thought. _'No, Aphelion would've told us if it was. But if that's not it, was the report on the news accidently had some wrong information on it? Gosh… I'm not sure why we—'_

His thinking was interrupted by a small beep on the ship's controls, while Aphelion spoke.

"I've got something…" she said, "Its faint; it's coming from over there."

The ship suddenly turned sharply to the left, causing Ratchet to jolt from his position, while Clank didn't seem bothered at all by the sudden turn. Although the ship has a steering wheel for drivers, Aphelion still liked to ride for herself.

"Ur, Aphelion?" said Ratchet, who shuffled back into his seat. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Of _course _I do," she replied, "I told you I picked up a power source not far from here."

"Ok," said the Lombax, eying where Aphelion was traveling. "Do you need me to drive for you?"

"No," said Aphelion, "you wouldn't know where to go."

Ratchet just rolled his eyes, he knew she liked to drive for herself, but he was slightly annoyed by Aphelion not letting him. The Lombax wasn't a bad pilot himself; he remembered him and Clank, when they first met, had driven his first ship he built from Veldin more than 10 years ago, travelling to planet Novalis…

_'…then it crashed into a cliff.' _he finished in his mind.

It was a couple more minutes later when Ratchet noticed a small object, not very far from their position. "Hey, Clank," he said, turning his head to his robot pal, "look over there." Ratchet pointed, Clank stood on his seat and looked to where the Lombax was pointing, it was a small rectangular-like object not far from them, on an nearby asteriod. As Aphelion closed in on it, they realized what it was… a ship.

Not just any ship, imprinted on its side was the recognisable logo of GrummelNet…

"…the transport," said Clank.

"We found it," said Ratchet, excited slightly. "Finally!"

"_See_…" said Aphelion with amusement, "I told you I found something."

"Hmm," Clank hummed, "It appears the power source came from one of the engines… which is still on."

"Strange…" said Ratchet, with suspicion, "only one engine is on… and the rest of 'em aren't."

The Lombax put a hand up to his chin, rubbing it with suspicion. _'Why is there only one engine on? What about the rest? Were the rest broken? Something's not right…'_

He put it out of his mind as Aphelion zoomed closer to the asteroid.

* * *

With their O2 masks on, their leader Zak and his men hid on the asteroid, inside a small crater, not far from them were the stolen transport, and their well hidden ship which cannot be seen. As they waited for their 'guests' to show up, they spotted a ship not far from them, and readied themselves for the trap. As the ship came in closer, Zak turned to his men…

"Now," started Zak to his men, "you all know the plan?"

They all nodded simultaneously.

"Right…" said Zak, "and whatever you do… do not—I repeat, _do not_…stuff this up, ok? Not like what happened back at GrummelNet."

"Yes, sir," they said.

Zak turned back to the approaching ship, it wasn't very far now, it closed in fast. Someone tapped him on the shoulder, he turned round.

"What?!" he whispered, not to attract attention from the ship. "Can't you see we got a trap to spring?"

"I'm sorry, but…" said the man, "what do _I _do?"

Zak just stared at him, and angrily sighed. "What do you mean _'what do I do?'_. Haven't you listened to the plan?!"

"Well, I—" started the man.

"Just…!" said Zak, cutting him off. "Stay behind the rest of the team." He sighed.

He turned back to the ship; it was landing on the surface.

"Alright," he said, "get to your starting positions…" he turned around to see if they're ready, "You…" he pointed, to the man he just talked to, "if you don't know the plan, just stay here and keep an eye out."

_'Bastard,' _Zak thought, _'who HIRED him on MY team?!'_

Zak turned again to the ship, it has landed, he held up a hand to the team.

"Not yet," he said, "wait 'till they get inside first…"

* * *

Aphelion landed onto the asteroid, directly in front of them, was the transport. It had 4 sections, the front was the driver's section, the two in the middle were storage areas, and the back was an open loading area, filled with automatic electronic barriers to hold down any sort of huge equipment, each of the sections were about 10 metres in length, giving the whole transport 40 metres length.

"There it is," said Ratchet, eying the transport. He took of his seat belt as Clank did the same. "Oh, that's right."

"What?" asked Clank, turning his head to the Lombax.

"I forgot my O2 mask," said Ratchet, remembering. "I can't breathe out there."

There was a click as something came out behind him, he turned and saw a mask on the wall with other equipment.

"Perhaps this could help," said Aphelion.

Ratchet grabbed the mask from its compartment, and had a look at it, it looked old but he saw some Lombax writing on it.

"Hey, Aphelion," asked Ratchet, showing the writing on the mask, "Can you read this?"

"What do you think?" she said, "I'm a _Lombax _ship." She scanned the writing on the mask, after a few seconds, she gave the response: "It simply says 'Oxygen Mask'."

Ratchet studied the mask, it was designed for Lombaxes, but he wasn't sure if it worked properly. He put it on, putting his ears through the top two holes at the back, he breathed. He smelled the rusty metal of the breather against his nose and mouth, but as he exhaled the air of the ship, he felt the freshly filtered air going through his lungs and decided it to use it. He took out his weapons except his wrench and placed them at his feet of the ship, thinking he won't need them.

"Alright," he said, his voice slightly distorted by the mask, but was still clearly heard, "Aphelion, open the cockpit window."

The ship opened up, with Ratchet and Clank hopping out. The Lombax breathed; he still smelt the rusted metal, but at least he could breathe. He held out a hand to Clank as the robot grasped it, Clank attached himself to Ratchet's harness on his back, as the Lombax pulled him up.

Ratchet walked up to the transport, he noticed the huge magnet on the top of it, _'The robbers must've used it to lift this laser thing and loaded it onto the back,'_ he thought.

He spotted a nearby door on the side of the 3rd cargo section of the transport; he paced up to the door and pulled out his wrench, ready to knock it down. He hit the door; causing it to swung open swiftly and hit the back wall.

_'Already open? Huh,' _he thought.

He, with his robot pal strapped to his back, walked inside. Not knowing that Zak and his men slowly following them from the other side of the transport.

* * *

Ratchet eyes scanned the dark inside, he noticed crates scattered over the place. Clank detached from Ratchet's harness on his back and hoped off, his eyed where Ratchet was looking at, all of the crates were unopened. Clank looked up and noticed air filters around the ceiling.

"Ratchet," he said, looking at the filters, "see those filters up there? They filter air in from the outside, so I guess it's ok to breathe in here."

Ratchet took of his mask to try the air inside, he breathed, and he didn't cough or choke. He attached the mask to his belt, knowing he'll need it later.

"Well," said the Lombax. "That's a relief; I don't like the smell of rusted metal."

He eyed around the room again and still noticed a lot of unopened crates.

"Why are crates still stored inside the ship?" said Ratchet, curious, "Shouldn't they've been taken? And they're all unopened."

"I noticed that, too," said Clank, "it seems that whoever stole this transport… left all of its valuable cargo behind."

Ratchet noticed a door over on the left of him, which led to the 2nd section of the transport. "There's a door over there," he said, pointing. "It must lead to more cargo in the ship."

Clank walked past Ratchet and up to the door.

"Clank?" said Ratchet, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going into the next room," he said, as he opened the door with a small control panel beside it, "you stay here and look around while I, look in there."

"Alright fine," said the Lombax, "just don't hurt yourself, 'kay?"

"Why would I want to _hurt _myself?" asked Clank, as he entered the next room. "That's one of the most stupid replies I've heard. I think you mean 'don't _get _yourself hurt'."

"Whatever," said Ratchet, rolling his eyes, "just… be careful."

Clank entered the next room with the door automatically shutting behind him.

* * *

Zak and his men were on the other side of the transport, opposite to where Ratchet and Clank entered.

"Ok," Zak said to his men, "they're inside; when I give the signal, we'll go through that door of the 2nd compartment." He pointed towards the door on the second section, behind the driver's section.

A few minutes went by until he gave the order. "Now!" he whispered.

He and his men came up to the door, opening it slowly.

* * *

_A few minutes earlier…_

Clank wandered around the cargo room, eying the crates, they too were unopened.

He hummed in thought, _'These crates are too, unopened. Whoever stole this laser and loaded it onto this transport must've been in a hurry, forgot about all the cargo in this ship.'_

He walked over to one of the huge metal crates and inspected it; it also had the GrummelNet logo on the side. He noticed a piece of paper attached on the side of the crate; the robot took it off and looked at it, it was a price list of GrummelNet products. It contained Combustors, Pyro Blasters, Groovitron Gloves, Mr. Zurkons, Warmongers, and Thundersmakers.

Clank looked from the list and back towards the crate. _'The contents in this crate alone are a million bolts worth.' _he thought, as he eyed it. _'In fact, the crates around this room are worth millions. Why would they leave all this behind?'_

Clank was so busy on his thinking; he didn't notice the door behind him on the other side of the transport opened up, nor did he hear the sound of a door lock, and nor did he hear Zak and his men creeping up behind him.

_'Something's not right here,' _he continued thinking, _'I better tell Ratchet about this.'_

As he turned to go back to Ratchet, he was suddenly kicked at, causing him to collide into some crates. He got back up, but was stunned by Zak, causing Clank to fall to the ground unconscious.

* * *

Before Clank was attacked, Ratchet looked around in the other cargo room opposite to Clank. He eyed a nearby metal crate, and walked up to it. Noticing a slight opening in the crate, he took out his wrench, and swung at it. The top of the crate popped up, Ratchet got a hold of the lid and placed it on the ground.

He looked inside, noticing a whole stash of weapons and gadgets, completely untouched.

_'None of these weapons are stolen,' _he thought, _'the robbers just left them. There's got to be millions worth of GrummelNet weapons here.' _He eyed around the whole dark room, looking at the tens of hundreds of crates untouched and unopened.

_'This is not right, first the engine, then the unlocked door, and now weapons inside aren't touched by the criminals? What is this? Is… this a…'_

Setup?

As soon as that word came to mind, he heard a crashing sound from the other cargo room, and realized Clank was in that room.

_'Oh, no,' _he thought. He rushed over to the door of the next cargo room, and activated the button on the panel. Nothing.

He tried again, still the same response.

"Clank!" he yelled, as he bashed on the door. With no other choice, he took out his wrench and bashed at the control panel.

* * *

Zak, who looked down at the unconscious robot, heard banging on the locked door. He signalled his men to hide as he hid behind a crate, getting ready to attack. Ratchet bashed at the control panel with his wrench, causing the door to slide open. He rushed inside; he stopped as he looked around the room, trying to find Clank.

He spotted Clank, lying on the ground not moving. "_Clank!_" he yelled as he rushed towards him. Before he could reach him, he was kicked in the stomach by Zak, who was hiding behind the crate. The Lombax fell to the ground, but got back up again and eyed his attacker.

Ratchet ran and swung his wrench towards Zak, Zak dodged the wrench as he tried to lay another hit on him. He took this opportunity as he saw an opening, punching the Lombax in the chest.

Ratchet flinched from the impact, but it didn't stop him from attacking Zak. He swung his wrench faster; Zak dodged it for a few more seconds, before the wrench hit him hard in the arm…

Crack.

He heard the sound of a bone break in his arm.

Zak fell to the ground, holding his arm with his other hand.

Ratchet picked him up by the collar and looked at him with his angry emerald eyes, as he did; a choking gasp escaped his throat. One of Zak's men grabbed Ratchet around the throat with his arm, causing the Lombax to drop Zak and his wrench to the ground. He fought against the man, trying to pull his arm away from his neck with his gloved hands. Ratchet started to feel his throat close up, as the man tightened his grip.

Ratchet let one of his hand go from the man's arm choking him, and elbowed him in the gut hard. The man loosed his grip on the Lombax's throat, as he did, Ratchet bit down on his hand.

Hard.

Ratchet's triangular-like teeth broke the skin as the man screamed, blood squirted out from the wounded hand in Ratchet's mouth. The man pulled away as the Lombax kicked him, causing him to collapse into some crates.

Ratchet spat the man's blood out of his mouth as another one of Zak's men charged at him. Dodging out of the way, Ratchet picked up his wrench swiftly, and took a swipe at him, causing him also to collapse into some crates beside the other man Ratchet kicked down.

Zak eventually got back up, still clutching his broken arm, and slowly walked up to Ratchet, who was fighting with another one of Zak's men with his wrench. Eventually, Ratchet hit the man in the head with his wrench, causing some blood to leak from the man's head.

Zak slowly was right up behind Ratchet, then he kicked the Lombax in the back, taking Ratchet by surprise as he collided into some crates. Zak looked at his injured men from the Lombax attacks.

"Come on!" he yelled to his men, still clutching his arm. "Don't let a small, furry rat beat the hell out of you!"

Ratchet stood up at that comment, angered.

"Look at him," yelled Zak; again, "he's just a stupid furball!"

Ratchet's anger started to rise.

"At least we took out that pathetic robot of his," continued Zak to his men. "You all—"

Snap. That did it.

Ratchet charged at him with his wrench, colliding with Zak, causing his back to slam against the wall. Ratchet held him by the collar up against the wall of the transport.

"Don't…" he started, with anger in his eyes, "don't you _dare _say that about my pal!"

"Alright, alright," said Zak, slightly scared by how a small Lombax could hold up a 6ft man. "I'm sorry that your robot doesn't know how to defend himself."

Ratchet put his face right up to Zak's, still angry by what he said.

"Clank can defend for himself very well," he said, dropping Zak onto the floor. "But you…" he pointed at Zak with his wrench, "you gotta watch what you say… especially with that temper of yours."

Zak remained on the floor, as Ratchet ran over to Clank, who still was unconscious from the stunning. The Lombax knelt down beside him, "Clank…?" he said, he received no response from the robot. "Pal…?"

Still no response.

Ratchet stood up and walked back over to Zak, and picked him up again by the collar. The Lombax placed him against the wall.

"What did you do to him?" he said, firmly. "And how do I wake him up?"

"I only gave him a stun with my gun," he said.

"Ok," Ratchet said, lowering Zak slightly but placed him back against the wall. "But how do I wake him?"

"I… I don't k–know," he said, struggling to get a few words out, because the Lombax held him by the collar.

"You wouldn't want to mess with this…" he said showing him his wrench, "…look at the damage it's already done." he said eying around the room.

"Yeah," said Zak, eying his broken arm, "I noticed."

"Anyway," said Ratchet, turning back to the subject, "you still haven't given me a straight answer on how to wake Clank up."

"Well, I—" he started, but Ratchet cut him off by gripping his broken arm. Zak flinched from the pain.

"No 'wells', 'buts', or any childish excuses!" Ratchet said, firmly.

"Ok," he said. "If he's not too damaged by the shock he should wake up soon."

Ratchet looked at him in the eye, trying to tell if he's lying, but found nothing.

"Thanks," said Ratchet plainly, as he dropped Zak to the ground again. He walked back over to Clank, knelt down beside him and scooped him up in one hand, and stood back up. He'd completely forgotten about the injured men, when he turned around, one of them with a combustor in his hand aiming directly at Ratchet. A crate lay unopened on the ground beside the man.

"Oh, crap," he said, he had nothing else to say as the man opened fire. Ratchet, with Clank in one hand and wrench in his other, he leaped through the nearby opened door which Zak's men came through before.

"Damn," said the man, "I missed him!"

Zak, who was still on the floor spoke. "Well _get _him you idiot! We can't let him escape!"

The man who had been holding the combustor ran back over to the unopened crate, and searched quickly for anything more destructive. He found it the weapon; it was quite large with 8 missiles around its base, a Warmonger. He quickly grabbed it and rushed out of the transport.

* * *

Ratchet ran out from the transport, and realized he didn't have his mask on. Quickly, with his wrench still in his hand, grabbed the mask from his belt and put it on. He breathed in fresh (rusted-metal) air as he still ran.

"Phew," he said, relieved. "That was a cl—"

Suddenly a missile came from out of nowhere and collided with the ground, 10ft in front of him, causing an explosion and leaving a small crater (not that there was any on the asteroid).

"Holy—"

Ratchet turned and saw one of Zak's men with a warmonger in his hands. He fired another missile at Ratchet, the Lombax quickly moved out of the way, he would've fought him with his weapons but he left them back in his ship, so he dodged them instead while he ran back to Aphelion.

He turned at the corner of the transport, missing another missile as it hit the ground. Ratchet saw Aphelion in the distance, and ran as quickly as he could, still trying to avoid the missiles.

Aphelion noticed Ratchet running with Clank unconscious in his arm. "Ratchet!" said Aphelion, "What's going on? What happened to Clank?"

"I'll explain later," said Ratchet, "right now we need to get out of here—"

He spotted another missile about to be fired from the warmonger by the man.

"_Now!_" he said to Aphelion, as the missile hit the ground a few metres in front of him, but still missed. Aphelion opened the cockpit, as Ratchet with Clank in his arm jumped inside. Ratchet placed Clank in the passenger seat as Aphelion closed the cockpit. Ratchet placed his wrench and the mask with his other weapons as he spotted another missile about to be fired.

"Aphelion!" he said, "We need to go now!"

The ship took off from the ground and she started her engines, just as the man fired two missiles out from the warmonger. Aphelion quickly blasted off just as the two missiles followed directly behind her. The ship had to avoid the asteroids as the missiles gained on her.

Ratchet looked out in space and saw the two projectiles coming in, "Ur, Aphelion," he said, worried. "Can you go any faster?"

"In an asteroid field?" she said, "I don't think so."

The ship dodged more asteroids as the missiles came closer. Ratchet looked out and saw the missiles still coming. Ratchet turned back to Clank, he still was unconscious. _'Hopefully he'll wake up soon. But I'm worried about those missiles still catching up.'_

The missiles were still about 30 metres away, but still came in closer.

In front of the ship were more asteroids, the ship dodged them very well, but the two missiles came in ever closer towards Aphelion. Every time Aphelion took a turn, it lost some speed, making the two missiles gain on them faster.

Ratchet looked out the window, and to his horror, the missiles were now about 5 metres away from them. His ears drooped slightly.

"Aphelion," he said, "I think we should get out of the asteroid belt. Those missiles are getting very close now."

"Alright," said Aphelion, "I'll try to find an opening."

The missiles slowly gained up on them, closer and closer…

"There!" Ratchet said, "Aphelion, turn to your right!"

Aphelion did so, as so did the missiles. The ship sped up as they started to zoom away from the asteroid field. Ratchet breathed a sigh of relief; he looked out the window and spotted only one missile.

_'Wait…' _he thought, _'what happened to the other—'_

His thinking was cut short as the second missile appeared out of nowhere from behind an asteroid and closed in fast on them. Aphelion quickly dodged out of the way from the missile, as the first zoomed in closer as well. Ratchet held onto the sides of the ship as the second missile came back around for another turn.

Ratchet also spotted an asteroid to his side, and noticed a missile on Clank's side, both the asteroid and the missile came closer.

_'Oh, no.' _Ratchet thought as he realized something.

Aphelion was going to make a choice, right or left. Colliding with the asteroid or with the missile. They could go straight through, but there was a very likely chance by doing so, they were going to be impacted by both, with no survival.

Ratchet noticed the missile was not that large and decided to take the risk. "Aphelion," he said, "turn to the right."

"What?!" said Aphelion, "We'll be hit by the missile!"

"Just do it!" said Ratchet. Aphelion had no choice but to follow the Lombax's words.

Aphelion turned right, as she did, Ratchet looked over to Clank as he saw the missile came in closer. Ratchet then took Clank with both hands and pulled his close to his chest, shielding him with his arms and body, hoping the missile will not damage much.

The missile came in closer as Aphelion turned right…

Closer… and closer…

Until…

Impact.

There was bright light as the ship's right side exploded from the missile, lucky; the damage to the right side wasn't bad. Not until the other missile came in behind them, impacting right into the thrusters.

Ratchet completely forgot about the other missile before he was thrown off his seat by the second impact, hitting his head on the top of the ship, knocking him out cold, still with Clank in his hands.

Aphelion started to lose control of herself as the missile impacted her thrusters, also hitting the hyper-drive engine. The ship started to speed up as the hyper-drive was incidentally activated by the damage. Speck of light in space turned to long bright streaks as the ship went into hyper-space, disappearing from view.

* * *

Zak and his men were now in their ship, bruised and bleeding from the Lombax, as they scanned the asteroid belt searching for the ship they escaped in. So far, they scanned the whole place, no sign of the ship. Assuming the ship was destroyed by the missiles, Zak turned to his men.

"They're gone," he said, "the radar shows no sign of their ship."

"Suppose they went into hyper-space?" said one of his men.

"If they did," said Zak, "the ship would've been tracked. We have their signature of their ship, but as I said before, the radar could not find them. They must've been destroyed by the missiles."

Zak turned back to the front of the ship, eying outwards into space.

"If they did survive…" he said after a few minutes, "that Lombax with pay dearly for what he did to my arm."

He eyed his broken arm in a holster as he contacted his executive on the com-link.

"Aaron, sir," he spoke on the com-link.

_"What is it, Zak?" _Aaron's voice spoke through.

"We've got rid of them, sir."

_"Good job,"_ said Aaron, sounding pleased. _"Return back to our base when your team is ready."_

"Ok, sir," Zak said before cutting the connection. He turned back to his men, then one of them spoke.

"But," he said, "what if they are still alive?"

Zak eyed him for a few seconds before replying, "If they are, we'll try to get rid of them before Aaron finds out… 'cause he doesn't like failures."


	5. Chapter 4: Unknown Planet

Author's Notes: Sorry it took a bit to upload this chapter, the Easter Holidays have ended and I went back to school. Now, I know what you're thinking, this means that it'll take a while to upload more chapters, but don't worry, I'll try to keep updating this story as quick as possible. There is one upside to this though, it has given me some time to plan out the plot for the story.

But enough of that, here's chapter 4!

* * *

Still in hyper-space, Aphelion tried to figure out how to disable the hyper-drive, as Ratchet and Clank were still knocked out inside. As she was trying to figure it out, a loud beep sounded, telling her they were dangerously close to an object in space. Aphelion tried faster to disable the hyper-drive before they'd impact on the object at full speed, but still had no success.

It was only about ten seconds before impact as she tried everything. Then she found the one and only answer to stop going through hyper-space and be obliterated, she forced herself to shut down.

As she shut-down on herself, the hyper-drive disabled as the ship slowed down, but without her stabilizers active since she shut herself down, she started to tumble and spin. The 'object' Aphelion detected was a planet, but the view of it was a greenish-bluish blur, as the ship spun uncontrollably towards it.

Aphelion re-activated herself as she was falling towards the planet, she activated her thrusters, but due to the damage from the missile, they were no use. There was no way to avoid the planet, they were going to crash.

The ship entered the atmosphere of the planet, still spinning, and finally the stabilizers came back online, just in time. Although it didn't stop them flying towards the planet's surface.

10,000ft…

Aphelion tried to balance herself just before they crashed, using her stabilizers to stoping the ship from spinning.

7,000ft…

As she was nearing the ground, it appeared she was heading into some kind of forest. Aphelion tried searching for a clear, open area, hoping not to be torn to pieces by the trees.

5,000ft…

She scanned around the forest, searching for a safe place to land… well, crash.

4,000ft…

She found a small open flat area with just some dirt and grass growing from the soil.

3,000ft…

She turned and aimed towards it, hopefully the impact wouldn't be as severe as the missile attacks.

2,000ft…

She dropped her nose down slightly, trying to mathematically aim herself towards the open area.

1,500ft…

Only a few more seconds before they'll crash, she hoped she was getting the math right as she dropped from the sky.

1,000ft…

So far, everything was going well. She still had about a thousand feet to go.

900ft… 800ft… 700ft…

One of the stabilizers on her wing, damaged by the missile, suddenly shut-down, causing Aphelion to spin out of control as she headed towards the ground.

500ft… 400ft…

She tried desperately to stop herself from spinning as the view of the ground came in closer.

300ft… 200ft…

The damaged stabilizer then came back online as Aphelion was about to crash, stopping her from spinning.

150ft… 100ft…

Only a hundred feet to go, she still wobbled a bit from the damage the missiles caused, she readied herself as she entered the open area.

50ft… 40ft…

So close to the ground, Aphelion then realized at the speed she was going, they would crash into the open area, but also skid past it and into the trees.

30ft… 20ft…

She could practically feel the energy of the ground as she tried to slow down.

10ft…

She still flew in the air, barely above the surface.

3ft… 2ft… 1ft…

Boom.

Aphelion crashed into the bare ground, kicking up the dirt with her long pointed nose and wings as she skidded along. She then slid past the open area and into the forest; she tried to turn to avoid the trees, narrowly missing them by millimetres. She thought she was lucky as she slowed down, but her luck ran out as her damaged right wing suddenly smashed into a tree, causing it to drag along the ground, still barely attached by a few wires and metal.

Aphelion tried to slow down, but her brakes were also damaged during the missile attack. She had no choice but to avoid the trees. Then, the left part of her nose impacted against a huge bolder, causing it to snap off from her ship.

She turned to the left slightly from the impact, causing part of her damaged right wing to come off completely. She then started to barrel roll, causing more damage to herself. Finally, after ten full 360 rolls, she came to stop. Sliding next to some rocks and trees, with only one wing, half a nose, damaged thrusters and other sorts of damage to her, all she could do was shut-down as the power drained from her.

* * *

Back at Apogee Space Station, Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr were sitting at the table of the dining room, waiting for Ratchet and Clank to return.

"It's been nearly two hours," said Talwyn, concerned, "they should be back by now."

"Maybe they got lost in the asteroid belt," said Zephyr, fidgeting with his metal thumbs.

"Impossible," said Cronk, sitting beside Zephyr, "the asteroid belt isn't really that big, if you go on the farthest asteroid in the ring, you could still see this station from there, so they couldn't really get lost."

"Well," said Zephyr, "what if they are trapped on an asteroid?"

"Then they would've contacted us for help," said Cronk.

"You sure?" said Zephyr. "Asteroids can disturb contacts between one another."

"Oh really?" said Cronk, getting annoyed, "have _you _been trapped on an asteroid? No! You haven't."

"Well at least I haven't been trapped inside a cubicle while trying to—"

"Hey!" yelled Talwyn, Cronk and Zephyr turned to her, "Will you guys _stop _fighting? Jeez! Anymore yelling and you two might explode. If you two want to find out what happened to Ratchet and Clank, we should search the asteroid belt."

Both the robots sighed deeply, despite the fact they both don't have lungs.

"You right," said Cronk, turning to Zephyr, "we should search for them, instead of arguing with each other."

"Yeah, I agree," said Zephyr, "Talwyn's right, we don't want your head to explode, it would've been so much fun."

"Shut up!" yelled Cronk, "Talwyn said not to argue!"

"Yeah?" said Zephyr, "Well at least I don't yell as much as you!"

"Quiet!" said Talwyn, "or do I have to remove your voice box?"

"No, madam," both the robots said.

"Now get your asses out in the hanger bay and go find them!"

"Yes sir–I mean miss–um, ur…"

Talwyn narrowed her eyes at the two warbots, without a second, both of the rushed out of the dining room and into the hanger bay.

* * *

_Ten minutes later…_

Cronk and Zephyr were now inside Talwyn's ship, searching the asteroid field for Ratchet and Clank.

"Are you sure they haven't gotten lost?" said Zephyr, looking out towards the asteroids, "It defiantly looks like it."

"Oh will you stop going _on _about that!" said Cronk, annoyed, "I tell you they aren't lost."

"Well," said Zephyr, "they would've tried to contact us, so we'll try to contact them."

The old warbot reached for the com-link on the dashboard.

"Do you know the number of their ship's com-link?" said Cronk.

"Pretty sure," said Zephyr, typing in the number. He brought the com-link up to his mouth and spoke into it. "Hello? Ratchet, Clank, are you there?"

"_Hello, customer,_" said a woman on the com-link, "_Do you have serious back problems? Is your neck stiff as a brick? Then come to Back-o Relax-o for our great range of massages for you back! We offer great methods to release tension in your body! Only 30 bolts an hour. We also provide creams to moisturise your dry, flaky skin! And, if you don't feel any difference afterwards, we'll double your money back! We are located in—_"

Zephyr cut of the connection, embarrassed by typing in the wrong number, with Cronk chuckling beside him.

"_Shut up, _Cronk!" yelled Zephyr, causing Cronk to stop chuckling.

"I can't believe you accidently dialled the number for massages!" laughed Cronk, holding his sides.

Zephyr narrowed his blue eye. "Are you going to keep laughing or are we going to find Ratchet and Clank?"

"Sorry," said Cronk, still chuckling, "just try to find the right number this time."

Zephyr typed in the right number into the com-link. "Oh, whoops, its 689-_4 _-237, my mistake." He brought the com-link up to his mouth and spoke into it. "Ratchet, Clank, do you read me?"

Nothing, just the sound of static.

"Ratchet, Clank, do you copy?"

Still no response.

"Something's wrong," said Zephyr, "they aren't replying back."

"Are you sure you didn't type the wrong number again?" said Cronk, starting to laugh.

"No," said Zephyr, trying to keep calm, "I typed the right number, look." He showed Cronk the com-link.

"Oh yeah," said Cronk, eying the com-link, "that's the right number. Wonder why they aren't picking up?"

"Maybe—" started Zepyhr, but was cut off by Cronk.

"Wait," said Cronk, eying something, "what is that?" He pointed at something outside the ship into space. Zephyr eyed to where Cronk was pointing, but all he saw was asteroids. Then, something else was floating in space.

Cronk flew the ship in closer towards the object, as they closed with it, the object came clearer into view. When they were about five metres away from it, Cronk and Zepyhr realized what it was, and gasped in shock.

* * *

Talwyn's ship returned to the hanger bay, as she watched it as it touched down inside the station, she'd hoped for Ratchet and Clank would come out. The ship opened up and Cronk and Zepyhr walked out, carrying something in their hands, Talwyn tried to look behind the warbots, expecting the Lombax and robot to pop out, but saw nothing behind them.

"Where's Ratchet and Clank?" she asked, hoping for good news, "Did you find them?"

Cronk and Zephyr just looked at each other and back at Talywn, Cronk held up the object they spotted earlier. It was the size of a garbage can; it had a greyish colour with light blue glowing lines running through it.

Talwyn realized what it was, _'No,' _she thought, _'it can't be.'_

It was. It was a thruster of the rear of a ship… Aphelion.

* * *

Ratchet felt pain... everywhere on his body. Although he was half-awake, he could still feel the burning sensation. Painfully, he tried to open his eyes, but all he could see was a greyish blur. Slowly, his eyes adjusted and saw what lay before him, wreckage…

He looked around, Aphelion was a mess. Metal twisted and broken, dirt covered the ship, and even some sparks of electricity came from it.

Ratchet sat up in the driver's seat, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and noticed some tears in his shirt and pants, and he realized he had sustained a number of wounds, some of them were still bleeding slowly, staining his golden fur and clothing.

The Lombax looked at where most of the pain came from; a wound ran down from his right shoulder to his chest, every time Ratchet breathed, he felt pain from the would as his chest expanded in and out. He also had a major headache, as he took off his helmet and put a hand to his forehead. The Lombax tried to ignore it, as he looked outside, but all he saw was dirt which covered most of the cockpit, leaving multiple beams of yellow light shining through the windscreen. He tried to open the cockpit by pushing against the roof of the ship, knowing Aphelion could not open it due to the damage she had taken.

He pushed harder, causing some pain to surface in his legs and arms, causing him to clench his teeth together. The cockpit opened slightly, causing some dirt to slide off the windscreen and onto his head. He shut his eyes and looked down, trying to prevent dirt going into them. When he opened them, he saw Clank at his feet, covered in dirt.

"Clank," he said, as he picked him up off the floor and brushed the dirt off him, "come on, buddy, wake up." He shook the robot, causing some more dirt to come off. Eventually, Clank slowly opened his eyes, and saw Ratchet holding him in his hands.

"Ratchet," he said, trying to think, "What happened?"

"Oh, good," said Ratchet, relieved, as he set Clank down on the passenger seat. "I thought you were never gonna wake. You were knocked out by those men while we were investigating the transport, after I stopped them from doing anything else; I grabbed you as quickly as possible and ran back to the ship. But after we took off, we were chased by missiles, the last thing I remember was when they collided with the ship, and I was knocked out… now I have no idea where we are."

Clank took the information in, as Ratchet went back to work pushing the cockpit roof upwards. The ship's cockpit opened up, causing some more dirt to slide off the windscreen, revealing their surroundings. They were in some sort of forest, with plants and trees they both never seen before, meaning they were on some sort of planet (or possibly moon) that they never been to.

"Well," said Ratchet, eying the forest, "like I said… we have no idea where we are."

Ratchet hopped out of Aphelion as Clank did the same.

"Well we know we are in some sort of forest," said Clank, "but I don't know what kind. My memory banks say this place is unknown."

"Great," said Ratchet, looking around the forest, he then turned back to the damaged ship, realizing just how badly damaged she was. A wing and half her nose was missing, broken metal laid on the ground everywhere, huge skid marks in the dirt from the ship could be seen straight behind it. "Oh, boy," he said, eying Aphelion, as he walked over to and patted the ship, "Don't worry, I fix you," he said to Aphelion, although she couldn't hear him.

"Ratchet," said Clank, watching the Lombax, "We can't transport Aphelion out of the forest by ourselves, we need a transport. Besides, she is damaged and parts of her are missing."

"I know Clank," said Ratchet, sighing, as he went back into the ship to pick up his weapons and his trusty OmniWrench. "I fixed her three times, remember?"

"_Twice_," corrected the robot, "the second time was when the Zoni fixed her, you told me that when I noticed the difference of colour on the ship."

"Yeah well," said the Lombax, "it still counts 'cause _I _saved them." He jumped out of the ship and looked around, "Well, how are we going to get out of this forest?"

"I am not certain," said the robot, turning around, taking a 360 view of the forest. "But we must start somewhere. We don't want to hang around in the same place all day, besides…" he looked up at the sky, noticing the sun was setting, "…it's getting dark,"

He was right. Ratchet looked up and noticed the orange coloured sun now slowly setting over the horizon. They had just over an hour left of sunlight, so they had better get moving and find shelter as soon as possible. They both started to walk down an easy open path where the trees were no less than two metres apart. As they walked, Ratchet slowed down and looked behind him, spotting the damaged ship. He felt guilty they had to leave her behind, but they had to find help, otherwise they might not make it off the planet.

Ratchet continued to walk alongside Clank; he still felt the burning pain of the wounds in his flesh. He looked down at his robot pal, who still had some dirt stuck to him. He also noticed some dents on Clank's metallic body which were not there before.

"Are you alright?" the Lombax asked, eying the robot's damage, "You're still covered in dirt and you got some dents in your body."

Clank looked at himself, and noticed the damage he sustained during the crash, "I am still functioning well," he said as he brushed some dirt off his shoulder. He looked at Ratchet, noticing his wounds and blood stained clothes. "You however, need to get some nanotech…" he noticed the Lombax's fur was covered in dirt, "…and have a shower."

"Yeah, but," said Ratchet, scratching his head causing some dirt to fall out of his fur, "how are we going to find some nanotech in a forest we don't know about? And also a shower? Besides, there could be lakes or rivers," he crossed his arms and flicked an ear, "But I don't feel comfortable bathing naked in a forest."

"Well," said Clank, "just make sure no mud or anything gets into your scars, we don't want any infections, especially in a forest we have no information about."

They continued walking as the sky got darker; they were running out of time. Ratchet continued to walk alongside the robot, still flinching from the pain, looked at the setting sun.

_'Hopefully we'll find shelter soon,' _he thought concerned, _'I don't know what happens around here at night, and by the looks of it… I don't want to find out.'_

* * *

For at least twenty minutes, they continued walking through the forest without stopping; Ratchet could swear he'd seen the same tree before as they walked. _'It's getting too dark,' _the Lombax thought, worried, _'We have to stop somewhere, besides—'_

There was a growling sound as Ratchet held onto his stomach, Clank turned to see the Lombax slightly hunched over his own stomach. Another growl was heard as Ratchet put more pressure on it.

"What's the matter?" asked Clank.

"It's my stomach," said Ratchet, flinching from the slight growling pain, "I'm starved. I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"You mean that piece of syrup-covered cooked batter fat?" said Clank, putting his arms to his hips.

"Aw, shut up," Ratchet said, letting go of his stomach, "How are we–I mean me, going to find food in this forest?"

"I'm not sure," said Clank, eying the vegetation around the forest. "I could try to check some plants that could be edible."

"Alright," said the Lombax, sitting down on a nearby rock, "I'll sit here and wait,"

Clank walked towards some nearby plants he noticed, they were a reddish sort of colour. After a scan from Clank's antenna, he noticed it was edible and not poisonous. "How about this plant?" the robot asked Ratchet.

The golden Lombax turned his head towards the red plant Clank pointed to, and pulled a slightly disgusted face from the sight of it.

"Ur," he said, flinching by the sight of it, "is there anything more… _appetizing_?"

Clank checked around nearby for anything the Lombax might want to eat; he spotted some small green and blue mushrooms which for some reason glowed in the dark.

"There are mushrooms over here," said Clank, looking back at the Lombax.

Ratchet eyed over towards the glowing mushrooms. "Ur, no thanks," he said, "By the look of them, they might be poisonous. It's alright, I can wait for a bit longer—" Ratchet stopped speaking as his ears pointed straight up, listening for something nearby. "What was that?"

"What was what?" said Clank, looking back at the Lombax, whose eyes were fixed on around the forest looking for something.

"I thought I heard…" said the Lombax, still with his ears straight up and eyes fixed, "Never mind." He stood up and walked over to his robot pal, "We better start moving again," he looked at the sun which had now set below the horizon, leaving an orange hue in the sky.

Ratchet and Clank started walking further into the forest, as a low rustling sound caused the Lombax's ears to perk up again.

"Wait, Clank," said Ratchet, looking around again.

Clank stopped as Ratchet was eying over towards some nearby bushes, the Lombax slowly walked up towards the rustling sound coming from it. Ratchet slowly brought out his OmniWrench as he approached the rustling bushes, stopping a few feet in front of it. Eyes squinted as he raised his wrench, preparing for whatever came out of it.

Ratchet was preparing to strike as the rustling grew louder.

Louder…

Louder…

Then, a small mouse-like creature came out from the bushes, sniffing the grass. Ratchet lowered his wrench as he spotted the mouse, sighing in relief as he smiling at the cute, fragile creature. The mouse turned its head to where it came from and suddenly took off.

The Lombax's eyes followed the creature as it ran behind some trees. A confused look on the Lombax's face formed, as he wondered what scared the mouse. Then, he suddenly heard more rustling from behind him as he turned sharply towards where the mouse had emerged.

Suddenly, a huge snake-like creature rose up from the bushes, its crimson eyes scanning the Lombax as it levelled its height to Ratchet's. It was about seven feet in length and was the colour of polished wood with spots of orange. The snake flicked its tongue as it bared its sharp fangs, its ribs inside its neck expanded outward, making a hood out of its skin resembling a cobra.

Ratchet flinched by the sight of it, watching it carefully, trying not to move so it wouldn't strike at him. The snake eyed Ratchet as it moved slowly up towards him, not taking its eyes off the Lombax.

Clank, who was watching the whole situation, recognized these kinds of snakes. At least 90 per-cent of these snakes were poisonous, but only 5 per-cent of them were lethal. Hopefully, this kind of snake wouldn't be lethal, otherwise the only way to find out is when Ratchet is bitten by it and the poison starts to affect his body, the robot hoped that wouldn't happen.

Ratchet was still standing still in the same place, keeping his eyes on the snake, which kept its attention on the Lombax as it bared its fangs again. Sweat was forming on Ratchet's furry forehead, dripping down his face and off his chin, showing his fear as he watched the snake.

Then, the snake moved into position, backing away slightly from the Lombax, as it bared it fangs once more. Ratchet realized it was going to attack him, so he very slowly raised his wrench, ready to defend himself.

There was a moment of silence; only the sound of the Lombax's deep heavy breathing and the snake's low hissing was heard.

Neither of them moved.

Then the snake suddenly launched itself towards Ratchet.

"Holy–_Ahh_!" the Lombax screamed, jumping out of the way of the snake. The snake turned its head towards Ratchet, letting out another hiss, striking out towards the Lombax again. But Ratchet was prepared this time, dodging out of the way again, as he drew his wrench and swiped at the snake. The snake was hit by the wrench, causing him to topple a bit on his long thin body.

The snake let out a hiss of pain as he turned back towards the Lombax, but they both were interrupted by a snap of a twig. Turing around, the snake spotted Clank standing on the ground, its red eyes looking into the robot's green ones. Ratchet noticed the snake was about to attack his robot pal, even if it was poisonous it wouldn't affect Clank's body, but Ratchet still didn't want to see his pal get anymore damaged then he already was.

The snake hissed as he lurched back, ready to attack.

"Oh, no you don't!" said Ratchet, as he ran towards the snake from behind, "That's my pal!"

Before the snake was able to strike the robot, Ratchet came up behind it and used his wrench, putting it swiftly over the snake's head and around its neck, stopping him from attacking.

The snake tried to break free as Ratchet strangled it with his OmniWrench. "Clank!" he yelled, "Quick, do something, I can't hold it forever!"

He was right; the snake was almost free from the wrench. Clank looked for anything that would stop the snake or at least injure it. A rock, it was the size of Clank's head itself, and probably just as heavy.

Ratchet still strangled with the snake as the snake used its tail by wrapping it round the Lombax's arm, while Clank was trying to lift the rock off the ground. The Lombax felt a cold sensation on his arm, which then for some reasoned tightened, going from a loose feeling to a very hard tight grip, causing the Lombax to yell in pain.

The snake's tail was wrapped around the Lombax's arm, cutting of its circulation, some of the wounds which were on his arm started to bleed from the pressure. Ratchet had to do something, otherwise the wounds on his arm would probably widen and once the pressure was released, he'd bleed profusely. The snake's grip on Ratchet's arm grew tighter, the searing pain worsened as the Lombax clenched his teeth.

Then, there was a thump as the snake's grip suddenly loosened, making Ratchet gasp in relief as he held his arm, dropping his wrench. The Lombax eyed the snake wondering what had happened; there was a line of blood leaking from the snake's head, as if it had been hit by something. Ratchet noticed a blood-stained rock on the ground, and looked up, noticing Clank in a tree with his thruster-pack out.

"Nice job, Clank!" said Ratchet, looking up the tree at the robot. But just at that moment the snake rose up, preparing to strike the Lombax yet again.

"Ur, Clank," said the Lombax, concerned, not taking his eyes off the snake. "It's still alive!"

The snake suddenly lashed out at Ratchet, making the Lombax to dodge out of its way as he swiped the wrench off the ground. Clank, who was in the tree, tried to get down but his foot was caught between two branches which were close together. "Ratchet!" said Clank, trying to pull his stuck foot out of the branches, "I'm stuck up here!"

The snake lashed out towards Ratchet again. Moving out of the way, Ratchet tried to swipe again at the snake.

Miss.

Ratchet turned back to the snake, which regained its balance and prepared to strike again. The snake moved forward as Ratchet backed away slowly, if the Lombax tried to attack it again, it would strike out at any sudden movement. As Ratchet backed away, he felt something press up against his back; he quickly eyed it and noticed it was a huge boulder.

_'There's no way I could lift that,' _he thought, as he eyed the snake sliding up to him. With Ratchet pressed up against the rock, the Lombax moved to the right to try and avoid the snake. But unfortunately, his shoulder bumped against another boulder on the right, he realized he was trapped in a corner.

The snake moved closer to Ratchet, as the Lombax raised his weapon…

Fangs bared, the snake launched at Ratchet, causing Ratchet to defend his face with his wrench as he closed his eyes, waiting for the bite.

Nothing.

Ratchet opened them and saw the snake with his mouth latched on around the base of the wrench. Ratchet tried to pull the wrench out of its mouth, but it seemed the snake's fangs were locked in place. Suddenly, the snake ripped the wrench out of the Lombax's hands with its mouth, and threw it to the ground a few metres away.

Ratchet knew he would never get it back with the snake in the way. So he pulled out one of his weapons, a Combustor. He aimed and fired at the snake. High-velocity fireballs of superheated plasma came out the muzzle of the gun, but the shots just skimmed past the snake without a result.

Due to the snake's slim long body; it was difficult to fire a Combustor at a small target without targeting mods.

But after some concentration, Ratchet managed to lay a shot upon the snake, causing it to hiss in pain. The snake then grabbed the Combustor from the Lombax's hands with its fangs and threw it to the ground as it did with the wrench.

_'Great,' _Ratchet thought, as he backed away into the corner again as the snake came towards him. _'Now what? I've got other weapons, but this animal will snatch them from me as he did before.'_

The snake bared its fangs yet again; Ratchet could tell it's probably furious by now, after the little fight with it. The snake reared back its head, preparing to strike the Lombax.

_'Crap,' _thought the Lombax, _'I'm so screwed.'_

Ratchet closed his eyes, preparing for more pain from the snake… possibly death.

Then, a bright light ignited the forest; it could practically be seen through the Lombax's eyelids. At first, Ratchet thought he was dead, because there was no pain from the snake. But he still felt pain from some of the scars still.

He opened his eyes, the bright light filled his vision, he saw the snake shriek in fear before it slithered away as fast as possible, back into the bushes.

"What the—" he said, confused, by how light could scare the snake away. He turned to where Clank was, still with his foot stuck between the branches. The Lombax walked up to the tree where the robot was struggling.

"Hold on, Clank," he said, as he reached up for one of the branches where Clank's foot was caught in between. Ratchet reached the branch and pulled, causing it to snap off and fall to the ground releasing the tight space on the robot's foot. Clank flew back down to the ground with his thruster-pack, as it retracted into the robot's body, with Clank's arms coming out where it retracted.

The bright light was still shinning on Ratchet and Clank as the both turned towards it. A silhouetted figure, about Ratchet's height, was seen standing about five metres away from the two with a torch in its hand.

"What are you two doing out here in the forest?" it said, the voice sounded like a young male.

Ratchet looked at the figure, its shape seemed to be a bit familiar, but the Lombax couldn't put a finger on what sort of creature this person was.

"I could say the same with you," said Ratchet, still eying the figure.

"I heard a huge crash not too long ago somewhere out here," said the figure, "I figure someone might've been hurt," the figure pointed the torch towards Ratchet, dirty and injured. "Looks like I was right."

Ratchet said nothing; neither did the robot beside him. They were too focused to the figure which stood before them.

"You two shouldn't be out here at night-time," continued the young man, "It can get very rough in the forest."

"Yeah, me and Clank noticed," said Ratchet, "Thanks, by the way."

"You welcome," said the figure, "So, what are you two doing out here alone?"

"Our ship crashed not too far from here and—" started Ratchet, but was cut off by the man.

"Ship?" said the figure, "You mean… you're not _from_ here?"

"No. We–wait…" Ratchet paused, "what do you mean we're not from here? Doesn't your planet have any spacecraft?"

"Nope," said the figure. "We hadn't had a ship arrive–well; _crash_ here for… thousands of years probably."

_'Thousands?' _Ratchet thought, _'This planet hasn't been visited by ships for thousands of years? Then how does this planet get resources and technology? Plus, does that mean we're stuck here until we repair Aphelion?'_

"Well, you looked like you're from here, though," the figure said to Ratchet.

Ratchet's ears perked up at that sentence. _'Did he just say… I looked like I was from here? But how? Unless…'_

The figure lowered his torch, revealing his appearance. Ratchet eyes widened, so did Clank's.

_'No,' _he thought, _'It can't be…'_

The figure was none other than a Lombax.

* * *

Author's Notes: Oh, cliff-hanger! No, not really, but what a thrilling ending to a chapter yet. Read and review!

Question for Readers: There were two titles I did for this chapter: "Unknown Planet" and "Strange Planet". Which title do you fancy more? Just leave a note in the comments. I'm gonna make this like a voting, so whichever has the most amount of votes, I'll change the title (or leave the title depending if you readers prefer the title like it already is).


	6. Chapter 5: The Forgotten Ones

Author's notes: I'm so sorry it took a bit to upload this chapter, I had a such busy time, going to work experience, celebrating my parent's anniversary, and of course, damn school work. Anyway, here's the 5th chapter, I made it longer for you readers. Enjoy!

* * *

Back at Apogee Space Station, Cronk and Zephyr were sitting on the couch of the living room, still shocked by the disappearance of Ratchet and Clank… possibly death of them. Ever since Talwyn found out when the warbots returned, she had locked herself inside her room, revealing she was clearly shocked and upset.

"How long has she been in there for?" asked Zephyr, sitting on the couch of the living room, eying the door to her bedroom.

"Ever since we returned with that piece of Aphelion," said Cronk, eying the broken thruster situated on the table.

Zephyr sighed, "I feel really sorry for Miss Apogee,"

"Funny," said Cronk, smiling.

"What is?" asked Zephyr, turning to Cronk.

"Most robots don't feel emotion," said Cronk.

Zephyr raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying I'm soft?"

"What? No!" said Cronk, chuckling a bit, "I'm just saying most robots don't have an emotion chip installed. They don't feel anger, sadness, enjoyment, and all those other emotions. You however, seem to have one."

"That's true," said Zephyr, nodding, "so do you as well, 'cause you always yell and stuff."

"Not always!" yelled Cronk, "I don't yell when you're around! You always annoy the crap out of me!"

"Well, you got to learn to ignore it sometimes!" said Zephyr.

Cronk just sighed, knowing he had nothing else to say. There was a moment of silence before Zephyr spoke again.

"I hope that nothing bad happened to them," he said, concerned, "It would be a huge tragedy to the galaxy."

"Don't worry," said Cronk, "We'll find them."

"But…" began Zephyr, "where could they be? If they're not 'round here, then where are they?"

"I don't know," said Cronk, "Where ever they are, we _will _find them. I promise you and Miss Apogee that."

* * *

Ratchet and Clank just stood there, shocked and probably surprised, as in front of them was a Lombax. He was slightly taller than Ratchet, by about a few inches. His fur was darker then Ratchet's, making it more of an orange colour, with dark brown stripes and had brown eyes. He was wearing a simple green shirt with a jacket and blue trousers. He had boots similar to Ratchet's but without to protect his feet and was holding a torch towards the duo.

"What is it?" he asked the two, "Looks like you two saw a ghost."

The two didn't say anything until Ratchet spoke with a stutter in his voice.

"Y–You're a–you're a—" he stuttered.

"…a Lombax?" finished the orange Lombax. "Well, what did you expect?"

Ratchet couldn't believe this, him finding another Lombax out in the universe was very unlikely. Sure, he stumbled upon Angela and Azimuth during his adventures, but he obviously thought he was the last one. The golden Lombax only managed to say two words, "But how?"

The orange one chuckled a bit at Ratchet's shocked expression. "Well," he said, "how else?"

Ratchet still tried to speak through his stuttering, "But, I t–thought I was t–the only one left—"

"Are you alright?" said the orange Lombax to Ratchet, "you seem to be stuttering a lot. I think it's getting too cold out here, the sun is already gone and the skies are dark."

The orange one walked up to the two, lowering the torch as he did. "We better bet going then," he said, "You wouldn't like it out here when it's dark."

"Yeah, good point," said Ratchet, as he picked up his wrench and Combustor and put them in his pocket, "We already wrestled with a snake a moment ago, so we don't want to face anything else more dangerous in this forest."

"Alright then," said the orange Lombax, "Follow me."

The orange Lombax turned around, his back towards them and started walking off, Ratchet and Clank still stood on the spot, still confused how a Lombax could still be around in the galaxy. The orange Lombax turned back and noticed they weren't moving.

"You coming or not?" he said.

Ratchet and Clank snapped out of whatever stopped them from moving and followed the orange Lombax.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in an unknown sector of the Polaris Galaxy…_

"…well done, Zak," said Aaron, at his desk. Zak, who was sitting on the other side of the desk, was smiling to himself.

"I am very pleased with your work," continued Aaron, "keep this up, and you're in for a promotion. We need people like you, Zak. If we can get more people like you, we'll succeed without any trouble."

"I'm honoured, sir," said Zak.

"I apologise for your arm, though," said Aaron, eyeing Zak's broken arm, "I'll have my insurance policy take care of that."

"Thank you, sir," said Zak, and with that, he stood up and walked out of Aaron's office. As he shut the door behind him, he noticed one of his teammates Liam leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, with bandages wrapped round his head.

"What?" Zak said, eying him.

"You didn't tell him, did you?" said Liam.

"Tell him what?" asked Zak.

"That those two pinheads could still be alive." Liam said this with a slight whisper, so that only he and Zak only could hear.

Zak chuckled slightly "Don't worry," he said, "I'll make sure Aaron doesn't find out."

"And if he does?" said Liam.

"Well," said Zak, "let's just say I don't want to be around when he finds out, 'cause he can get very pissed. But don't worry; if we find them still alive, I'll make that Lombax pay for what he did." Zak eyed his broken arm as he said this.

"Wow, seriously," said Liam, rolling his eyes, "just because he broke your arm? It can be fixed you know."

"I know that," Zak said, with a slight bitterness in his voice, "but that's not the point, he caused me more pain then any mission I was on."

"And me, look…" said Liam, pointing towards his bandaged forehead.

"You call _that _a wound?" Zak scoffed, "He actually _broke _my arm. You however, just got a bump on the head."

"A bump?" said Liam, getting annoyed, "a _bump_?! He almost broke my skull in half with that wrench of his! Didn't you see? Blood, _real _blood was leaking from my head! I could've—!"

"Alright!" yelled Zak, "That's enough! Gosh, you sound like a 4-year old!"

Liam just sighed, knowing that anything else to say was pointless.

* * *

Ratchet and Clank were now walking through the forest alongside the orange Lombax, the sun now gone and the sky filled with millions of twinkling stars, which were banded together in the form of a spiral, the galaxy. It would've been a spectacular view, if it weren't for the hundreds of trees obstructing the sky.

As the orange Lombax lead the way through the forest, Ratchet occasionally stared at him, curious to see how a Lombax could survive on its own out in the middle of nowhere.

There was silence, only the sound of some nocturnal animals and crunching of the dry, soil ground from the bottom of the Lombax's feet were heard. This remained for some time until Ratchet spoke.

"Thanks for saving us back there," he said.

"No problem," was the reply of the orange Lombax.

"How did you know that snake was afraid of the light?" asked Ratchet, eying the torch held by the other Lombax.

"They aren't really," said the orange Lombax, "their eyes are very sensitive to brightness, that's why they do their hunting during night-time. Whenever there is light, the snake is practically blind, making itself vulnerable, that's why it took off, 'cause it couldn't see."

"Well," said Ratchet, "you're coming was right on time, I was about to be a snake's supper."

"I don't think we've been fully introduced," said the orange Lombax, "the name's Rian."

"Nice to meet you Rian," said Ratchet, "I'm Ratchet," he put a hand on Clank's shoulder, "and this is my robot buddy, Clank."

"It's nice to meet you both," said Rian, as they continued walking. The orange Lombax looked straight ahead. "We should be at the town very soon."

That sentence caused Ratchet's golden ears to perk up. _'Town? Does that mean…'_

"Wait," said Ratchet, causing him and both Rian and Clank to stop walking. "Did you say town?"

"Yep," said Rian, "home to the other Lombaxes there."

That next sentence caused Ratchet to grab Rian's arm.

"_Other_ Lombaxes?" he said, with his heart racing. "You mean… there are _more _Lombaxes here?"

"Ur, yeah," said Rian, eying Ratchet oddly.

"How many?" said Ratchet, gripping Rian's arm tightly.

"Well," Rian said, thinking, "By my memory… about 10, 15,000, maybe more—"

Ratchet reacted by grabbing Rian's jacket, "You serious?"

"Well, yeah," said Rian to the golden Lombax, "you okay?" but Ratchet ignored him. Ratchet let go of Rian and started to run towards where the orange Lombax was heading to.

"We have to get to them!" said Ratchet as he ran, but stopped as searing pain channelled through his legs, causing him to drop to the ground. Rian and Clank rushed towards the fallen Lombax, who gasped in pain, Rian helped Ratchet onto his feet as Clank spoke.

"Are you okay, Ratchet?" asked the robot, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Ratchet. Rian helped the golden Lombax stand up by putting one of Ratchet's arms around his neck, and using the torch in one hand, he used the other hand to support Ratchet off the ground by holding his waist.

"We should only be a few minutes away from the town now," said Rian, as he started walking with Ratchet supported on him, and Clank following behind. For a few minutes, they have been walking nonstop, with Ratchet limping slightly from the pain in his legs as the orange Lombax supported his weight.

"Mind if I ask you a question?" he said to Rian, as they walked.

"Sure," replied Rian.

"How long have these Lombaxes you talked about been on this planet for?" asked Ratchet with curiosity.

"Ever since we arrived here thousands and thousands of years ago," answered Rian, "we weren't _born _on this planet. That's probably how much I know, you might have to ask my father about that, he knows a lot of stuff."

Ratchet was slightly saddened after hearing the word 'father', knowing that reminded him of Kaden. _'At least he's got a father…'_ he thought.

They continued walking as Rian spotted faint glowing lights shining from behind some huge plants. "We're here," he said, as he pushed away the plants blocking the view ahead, revealing what lay before them. Ratchet gasped under his breath, his eyes widening. _'Whoa…'_

Before them was a town, it looked very similar to the old Lombax city in Fastoon, but only it wasn't in ruins. Glowing yellow lights shone out from the town's houses, lighting up the entire place. In the distance in the centre of the town, was the town square, where the markets were normally held every day, selling all different kinds of daily life needs, from food to clothing. Further to the left of them was some sort of farm. _'That's probably where they get all their food from…' _thought Ratchet, as he eyed the entire place.

"You should see what it's like during the day," said Rian, admiring Ratchet's astonished face, "people all walking in the streets, enjoying the fresh air, and the markets will be very busy too."

Ratchet was astounded by the town, sure it wasn't as big as any other city he saw in the galaxy, but he was still pretty impressed by it. Clank was impressed, too. He was obviously admiring the structure of the entire place.

They were now walking through the streets of the Lombax town; the houses were made of some sort of stone with a bronze like colour, which were very smooth and polished, making it almost as if you could see your own reflection in it.

"Hey, Rian," Ratchet said, "where are you taking us?"

"Where else…?" he replied, "my home."

For a few more minutes, they walked through more streets, viewing more of the town. Rian looked at his wrist, revealing a watch.

"My mum's probably almost finished making dinner now," he said. The word 'dinner' made Ratchet's stomach growl as he put a hand on it. Rian must've heard it because he then spoke again, "don't worry, we'll be there soon."

Eventually, Rian stopped upon a simple bronze-like home, causing Ratchet and Clank to halt. This home must be where Rian lives, because he then walked up to the door and knocked. Rian stood back slightly casing Ratchet to do the same, since Rian had his arm around his neck, as they waited patiently for the door to open. There was a click from the door as it opened wide, revealing a female Lombax. She was about the same height as Rian, with slightly darker fur as he had with blue eyes; she was wearing an orange shirt which matched with her fur with long light grey pants. She wasn't wearing any shoes, revealing her feet and like all female Lombaxes, she didn't have a tail.

"Hi, mum," said Rian, smiling, it wasn't a pleasant one either.

"Rian," she said, not noticing Ratchet and Clank, "where were you this afternoon? I thought we lost—" she stopped talking as she noticed the golden Lombax, bloodied and dirty leaning on Rian. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"I heard a loud crash not too far from here," explained Rian, "I thought I go and find out what it was, when I stumbled upon these two."

"Are you alright?" she asked Ratchet, half ignoring Rian, "Come in and we'll clean you up." she walked over to Ratchet and held his shoulders as Rian let go of him. The woman helped Ratchet inside the house and Clank followed in behind, as Rian took off his boots and walked in also. The golden Lombax stumbled a bit as the woman led him to a bathroom.

"There's a shower just in here," she said to Ratchet as they came to the door of the room, "I'll get you some spare clothes and a towel, but don't put a shirt on yet, that wound on your chest looks serious."

"Thank you," said Ratchet as he entered the bathroom.

"Don't mention it," she said, "just put your clothes in the basket over there when you're finished,"

The woman shut the door behind him as Ratchet eyed his surroundings; the bathroom was different to any bathroom he'd seen before, except of course for the sink, toilet and shower he recognised right away. He took off his shirt, which caused some pain to surface in his chest, making him clench his teeth and flinch. He noticed the blood from the wounds had dried, leaving thin, red lines of crusted blood where his wounds were. After taking off the rest of his clothes, ignoring the pain, he dropped them to the floor. Fully stripped, he walked into the shower cubicle, and shut the glass door behind him.

He eyed around the cubicle, it was different than any he saw, he wondered if it function the same way. He spotted some soap wash, cloths, and other shower accessories, he eyed the shower's nozzle head above him; it was similar to any shower nozzle head where the water sprayed out from. The only thing that was different in the cubicle was two knobs, coloured red and blue below the nozzle.

He assumed they were to turn on the shower, so he reached for the blue one and pressed.

Nothing.

He pressed again.

Still nothing.

_'How do I work this thing?' _he thought.

Instead of pressing it, he turned it. Cold water burst from the nozzle and onto Ratchet, causing him to gasp and jump out of the way as pain surfaced once again in him. He cursed under his breath as he slowly stepped back into the water; he noticed that the blue knob meant 'cold', which meant the red one obviously meant 'hot'.

After his body got used to the temperature, he decided not to turn use any soap, knowing that his wounds will sting badly by it.

After a few minutes of getting the dirt and blood out of his fur, he turned off the shower and stepped out of the cubicle. He spotted a towel and clean clothes all ready for the golden Lombax; the woman must've put them there while he was in the shower. After drying himself, he put on the clean clothes except for the shirt. He picked up the ripped, blood-stained pilot suit, and after taking off the nav-unit attached to his belt, the harness he always wore to carry Clank, and his weapons and the pocket watch, he dropped the rest of the suit in the clothes basket, as he put the weapons and pocket watch inside the pocket of the clean pants.

Carrying the wet towel in one hand and shirt, harness and nav-unit in the other, he walked out of the bathroom. He walked into what he assumed was the lounge room, where he spotted Clank and Rian talking to each other on the couch.

"I have never seen a robot before," said Rian, looking at Clank, "not even one who can talk."

"I thought you mightn't have," said Clank, "by the lack of technology you have on this planet, I assumed you never even _heard _of a robot."

Rian chuckled a bit at Clank's comment, as Ratchet sat down on a chair beside the couch. Rian's mother came into the room; she spotted Ratchet sitting down on the chair.

"Ah," she said, as she walked over to Ratchet, "I see you're finished cleaning. Here, I'll just hang that towel up for you." Ratchet passed over the towel to her.

"Thanks," said Ratchet.

She took the towel and walked out of the room. A moment later, she came back in the lounge room, carrying something which looked like a first-aid kit. She sat down on the couch and placed it on the coffee table.

"I assume that is where you keep the nanotech?" said Clank, eying the first-aid kit.

Rian and his mother looked at the robot in confusion. "What's nanotech?" he asked, confused.

Clank just stared at the Lombax, _'Strange,' _he thought, _'I never heard people say they didn't know what nanotech was before, not even a Lombax. I thought these Lombaxes might've known—'_

"What's nanotech?" repeated Rian, wondering.

Clank shook his head slightly as he put a hand up to his forehead, lost in thought.

"Ur, sorry," he said, "Nanotech is what we use to heal and repair organics inside out if they had sustained damage."

"I never heard of anything like that before," said Rian's mother, as she opened the first-aid, and took out a few rolls of bandages and some sort of cream. "We don't have anything like that in our house."

She grabbed the cream and bandages and walked over to Ratchet who sat on the chair, she kneeled down in front of him to get a better view of the wound on his chest.

"Okay," she said, studying the wound, "it's not as bad as I thought it was."

"That's a relief," said Ratchet, relaxed, "I was worried about that for a second."

"Still," continued Rian's mother, "we have to bandage that up, we don't want anything making it worse."

She opened the cream container, and using her fingers; she put some of the cream on Ratchet's wound. The golden Lombax flinched slightly at it, as the wound stung. Rian's mother noticed the flinch and spoke.

"Sorry," half-chuckled Rian's mother, "does that hurt?"

"A bit," said Ratchet, "it's fine, I had worse."

Rian's mother continued to rub the cream on Ratchet's wounds in his chest, as Rian and Clank talked to each other. Finished, Rian's mother got the bandages and un-rounded them. The golden Lombax lifted his arms up as she wrapped the bandages around his chest.

"You don't really have to do this," said Ratchet, smiling slightly, as Rian's mother continued to bandage his wounded chest, "I can bandage myself up."

"Well," said Rian's mother, "whenever someone gets hurt, even if it's not my family, I'm always willing to help them out."

"That's pretty thoughtful of you," said Ratchet.

"There we are," she said, as she tied a knot in the bandage, so it could be secure on Ratchet's chest without loosening.

"Wow," said Ratchet, looking at his bandaged chest, "that's good bandaging, thanks."

After she bandaged any other wounds on his arms and legs. She stood up and walked over to the kitchen to wash her hands, as Ratchet put the shirt on, covering the bandages on his chest.

_'These Lombaxes seem nice,'_ Ratchet thought, _'you don't get many people this nice nowadays, they know nothing about me and Clank and yet they invite us in to look after us.'_

Rian's mother walked back over to the couch and sat down between Clank and Rian while Ratchet remained on the chair.

"Did you ever think of becoming a nurse?" asked Ratchet to Rian's mother, "'cause you'd make a great nurse."

"I was thinking of becoming one a couple of years ago," she explained, "but since it was difficult to find a placement in a hospital, I decided just to forget it."

"Well, you'd make a great nurse," said Ratchet, "just don't give up, you'll get there."

"Thanks for the advice, um…?" said Rian's mother.

"…Ratchet," said Ratchet, "and that's my pal, Clank," he eyed over towards the robot.

"Ratchet," said Rian's mother, "my name's Marie."

"It's nice you meet you, Marie," said Ratchet. There was a beeping sound which made the golden Lombax's ear perk up, as Marie stood up from the couch.

"That'll be dinner," she said, as she walked back over to the kitchen.

"I better go get Lil," said Rian, as he began to stand up off the couch.

"Lil?" asked Ratchet, "who's she?"

"My sister," answered Rian.

"You have a sister?" said Ratchet.

"Yep," said Rian, "Lil… short for Lillian."

Rian stood up from the couch and walked over to a door, he then knocked on the door.

"Lil!" he said, "dinner's ready."

"Ok," said a muffled girl's voice from behind the door, "I'll be there in a minute,"

_'Yea,' _thought Rian, _'what minute?'_

Rian walked back over to the couch and sat down, as Ratchet moved from the chair and onto the couch, who still flinched from the pain of the wounds, but thankfully it was not as painful as before. He heard some clanging from the kitchen as Marie was setting out dinner onto the plates.

"You should stay for dinner, Ratchet," he heard Marie say.

"Oh no," said Ratchet, "you don't have to—"

"It's fine," said Marie, "you were injured so I might've thought we'd give you something. Besides you look starved."

"Well, thanks," said Ratchet, "I haven't had anything to eat for a bit anyway. But if you cooked the food for your family, don't you think there will be enough for—"

"You and Clank?" asked Marie.

"Well, just me," said Ratchet, "robots can't eat."

"There will be enough," said Marie, "I always cook an extra plateful just in case someone of our friends comes over."

"Dad should be home from work by now," said Rian, "he always comes just before dinner's ready."

"Where does he work?" asked Ratchet.

"He works at his own company as a mechanic," said Rian.

"Really?" said Ratchet, surprised, "What a coincidence, I'm a mechanic, too."

"Okay," he heard Marie say, "dinners out."

Ratchet, Clank, and Rian stood up from the couch, and walked over to the dining table, where they spotted dinner all ready to be eaten. They took their seats (even Clank although he doesn't eat) as the front door of the house opened, revealing a male Lombax walking into the house.

He was about the same as Marie's height, with the same fur as Rian's with the same brown eyes. He was wearing a mechanic's outfit, still a bit dirty from his work, he was Rian's father. He walked up to his wife and kissed her on the cheek.

"Hello, darling," he said to Marie, "sorry I'm late. I had to fix a friend's broken generator on the way home."

"Didn't you told me that last week?" asked Marie, slightly raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," said Rian's father, as he took things out of his pocket and placed them on the kitchen bench, "but he told me the damn thing broke again. I told him just to get a new one, but he just said, 'I don't _need _a new one, I got _you _to fix it. Besides, it costs too much for a new one.'"

He then walked into what Ratchet assumed was their bedroom, "I'm just gonna get dressed into something more appropriate for dinner," he called out, before shutting the door. It opened a few minutes later, with Rian's father in a simple dark grey shirt and dark blue trousers.

He took his seat at the end of the table, clearly unaware of two new faces sitting down also. A door opened somewhere in the house, the same door where Rian told his sister that dinner was ready a couple of moments ago, causing a turn of a few heads at the table. A small Lombax girl, half-skipped half-ran, came out of her room. She looked about eight years old, and was about over four feet tall, almost twice the height of Clank, with light orange fur and light brown stripes with her mother's eyes. She was wearing a blue and pink shirt which went well with her purple trousers.

"Ah-ha," said Rian, grinning towards Lil, "I though you wouldn't be out in a min—"

But Rian was cut off by Lil as she ran up to her father. "Hey daddy!" she said, as her father picked her up and hugged her.

"Hey Lil," he said, letting out a breathless laugh, "is your brother still annoying you?"

"Yeah," she said, as she turned her head towards Rian, "he's such a moron."

"Wow," said Rian defensively, crossing his arms, "big words for a small Lombax... a _girl _Lombax."

"Do you know what he did today?" said Lil to her father, "he put hot sauce in my drink."

"Did not," argued Rian, then noticed his father's stare, "it wasn't sauce, it was seasoning."

"Oh yeah?" said Lil, "what _kind _of seasoning?"

Rian hesitated before he sighed, "Chilli,"

"Ah," said Marie, as she spotted the bottle of chilli seasoning in Rian's pocket, "so that's where it went." as she snatched it out of his pocket.

"You see?" said Lil to her father.

Ratchet hid a snicker.

"Why did you put chilli in her drink?" said Rian's father, "You know she can't handle hot drinks. How would you like it if someone put a chilli in your sandwich?"

"I don't know," said Rian, "I thought it might be funny, besides I heard her say she always wanted to be _hot_."

"Oh, you _funny_," said Lil, as she took her seat.

"Alright," said Marie, "enough arguing. Let's just eat."

They all began to eat dinner (except Clank, although he _was _at the dining table), Ratchet looked at his food, it was very different than any food he had eaten before. It had some sort of red meat with vegetables he'd never seen before. Whatever it was, it still looked pretty good. It tasted pretty good too, as Ratchet used his fork and knife to try a bit of the meat. After a few bites of the food, Rian's father noticed Ratchet at the table.

"And who's this?" he asked. It wasn't out of curiosity; it was because he wanted to know why a Lombax he'd never seen before was at the dinner table.

"Oh," said Marie, "this is Ratchet. Rian found him in the forest; he was in a bit of a mess."

"Ah," said Rian's father, as he held out a hand for Ratchet to shake, "Hi there, I'm Bradley, just call me Brad for short."

"Hi Brad," said Ratchet, shaking his hand, "I'm Ratchet as you know, and this is my pal Clank," he jested a hand towards the robot beside him.

"A robot?" said Brad, interested, "I have never seen a robot before. I have seen advanced machinery, but never a robot."

"Would you like a drink?" asked Marie to Ratchet.

"Yes, thank you," replied Ratchet, "Rian says you're a mechanic," he continued to Brad.

"That's right, at Brad Mechanics," said Brad, "You can see _why _it's called that. You interested in mechanics?"

"Better," said Ratchet, smiling to himself, "I _am _a mechanic."

"Are you really?" said Brad, becoming more interested. "You should visit my shop; I got loads of stuff there that you might be interested in."

"Believe me," said Ratchet, "I _will _be interested."

"He looks so cute," said Lil, eying Ratchet, "better looking than Rian."

"Hey!" said Rian, shifting in his seat, "I'm cute… and good looking."

Lil just laughed at Rian.

Brad chuckled, "Marie," he said, "where did you say you found this Lombax?"

"I didn't," said Marie, "Rian did. He found him badly hurt in the forest; luckily he brought him here before anything else happened."

"What?" said Brad, sounding a bit shocked, "What were you doing out in the forest?"

_'Should I lie? Or tell the truth?' _he thought, _'If I tell the truth, they would either believe me and the story could spread around the whole town and attract attention or they won't believe me. If I lie, I could easily get away with it… but how will I repair Aphelion and get off the planet? Can these Lombaxes here fix it? Do they have the same sort of technology to repair the ship? So hard to choose! What should I do?'_

"Didn't you say you two crash-landed here?" said Rian.

_"Damn!"_ thought Ratchet, _"I forgot I told Rian that! Thanks Rian for reminding me."_

"What do you mean by _crash-landed_ here?" said Marie, to Rian, "How could they crash-land here. Unless they..."

All heads of the family turned towards the duo, which made Ratchet uncomfortable in his seat, making his ears lower a bit, and made his tail swish underneath the chair very slowly. Only silence was heard throughout out the room, the only sound was the slight rustling of the trees outside and the clinkering of the cutlery on plates, until Brad broke the silence.

"...came in a ship." Brad finished off Marie's sentence. More silence was heard, making Ratchet breathe heavily and slowly and Clank bowing his head slightly.

_'Oh boy,' _thought Ratchet, as the four pair of Lombax eyes locked onto them.

Eventually, Bard spoke again, "You're not... _from _here, aren't you?"

Ratchet replied with a simple shake of the head and a simple answer, "No." The silence of the room to Ratchet was unbearable, knowing he and Clank were now probably in big trouble, so he decided to speak.

"I guess you'll all pretty shocked, huh?" he said, with a slight chuckle.

"Pretty much, yeah," said Rian, playing with his food with his fork.

"How?" said Brad, confused and shocked, "I mean, if you two came in a ship, then why did you come here?"

"It's a long story," said Clank, "and I hope you understand," the robot nodded to Ratchet.

"We were investigating a stolen ship out on an asteroid," explained Ratchet, "which stole some very valuable equipment from a factory. After we heard it was stolen and was last spotted in an area we knew we thought we might investigate. Eventually we got to the asteroid with the stolen transport, and after when we went inside it thing we were ambushed by the robbers. Clank got knocked out by them, and after I fought them I grabbed him and took off out of there.

"I ran back to the ship with Clank in my arms as one of the men fired on us with a rocket launcher, I barely dodged the missiles as I jumped into the ship. Straight after we took of he fired a pair of missiles at us, as we dodged the asteroids. Eventually, a missile hit our ship, and damaged it. Luckily I and the ship were too badly hurt... when the second missile hit the back of the ship.

"I was knocked out by the impact, I don't know what happened after that but I can only think that the missile accidently activated the hyper-drive, which caused us to go into hyper-space."

"What's hyper-space?" said Rian, wondering.

"Hyper-space is a faster way to travel," explained Clank, "making it easier to traverse the galaxy in no less the 3.4—"

"Ur, okay Clank," said Ratchet, "I think he's got it now. Afterwards, I woke up in the forest, completely surrounded by wreckage. After I woke Clank, we decided to find shelter in the forest, until we were attacked by a huge snake. After a bit of a fight with it, I was trapped in a corner with the snake about to attack me, when Rian showed up just in time and saved me. That's pretty much why we're here until we can repair the ship."

At first, the family didn't know what to take in; it was all an interesting and confusing story. Ratchet waited for an answer, but everyone just remained silent. After everyone had finished their meals; and Marie took the dirty plates to the kitchen, Ratchet stood up from his seat and after he collected his stuff from the lounge, he and robot started to walk out.

"Thank you for looking after us," said Clank, as the duo were about to walk out of the house, when Marie spoke.

"Wait," she said, "where are you going?"

"Oh," said Ratchet, "We're just gonna find a place to stay for the night, we don't want to cause any trouble."

"What do you mean?" said Marie, "You're not causing any trouble. Are you going to sleep out there?"

"Well, yeah," said Ratchet, "Unless they have a hotel in the area."

"You don't want to spend a night in a grubby hotel," said Marie, "you and Clank can spend the night here if you want."

Ratchet's ears perked up, "Really?" he said, "I'd expect you'd not allow me to, because—"

"...you're from another planet," said Marie, finishing off Ratchet's sentence, "I don't care you're from somewhere else."

"I don't either," said Rian.

"Me too," said Lil.

Heads turned to Brad, expecting for an answer.

"Neither do I," he said, "You're still a Lombax, and from another world or not... Lombaxes look after each other."

For a moment, Ratchet didn't know what to say, he was surprised. He didn't expect them to allow him and Clank to stay, even though he was from different planet, but he was still a Lombax.

"I, ur..." said Ratchet, "Don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to say anything," said Marie, smiling, "You two can stay."

"Well," said Ratchet, "Gee, thanks."

"Don't mention it," said Marie. "In the morning, my husband can show you around the town if you want."

"Yeah, okay," said Ratchet, "I would like to know this place a bit more; I don't want to get lost."

"Then it's settled then," said Brad, "I'll show you everything 'round the town, the market, the farms, my work, and all that there is. And afterwards, we'll get what's left of your ship and bring it back to my work and try to fix it."

"Do you know about spacecraft?" said Ratchet.

"Well," began Brad, "I know about other things besides that, but you're too are a mechanic, so you probably know more advanced technology than I do. If we work together, we could repair the ship in no time, and I promise we'll get you back home."

"Thanks," said Ratchet, "I really appreciate that."

While they were talking, Marie was setting up Ratchet's bed on the couch. "You'll be sleeping here tonight," she said to him, "I'm sorry if it's a bit—"

"It's perfect," said Ratchet, as he helped Marie set it up, "I already slept on a couch last night, another night on it won't be a problem."

* * *

After about half an hour, Marie asked if Ratchet wanted dessert, but the golden Lombax said he didn't want any, saying he was already full from dinner. A couple of more hours later, after Marie and Brad put Lil and Rian to bed, Ratchet started to feel tired.

"I'm, ur," said Ratchet to Marie and Brad, "just gonna go to bed."

"Alright Ratchet," said Marie, "goodnight."

"Goodnight, Ratchet," said Brad.

"Goodnight," replied Ratchet, as he sat on the made bed.

Ten minutes later at around half past ten, Brad and Marie were now in their bedroom, with Ratchet now lying on the couch in his sleeping boxers. All the lights were now turned off, the only light source were Clank's bright green eyes, while the robot walked across the room to find a good place to hibernate. after finding a suitable place to sleep, Clank turned to Ratchet on the couch.

"Goodnight, Ratchet," said the robot, as he began to tuck his robotic limbs into his body.

"'Night, Clank," said Ratchet, as he pulled the sheet over himself and rested his head on the pillow.

* * *

At around one in the morning, with Clank asleep upright on the coffee table, with his robotic limbs tucked in his body, while Ratchet was tossing and turning on the couch. He wasn't trying to get comfortable, he was already asleep, it was something in his head which disturbed him. The memories from last night were haunting him again in his sleep, the same as last night. The voices flowed through Ratchet's head in his sleep, as he gripped the blanket and his breathing became fast and heavy.

"No..." Ratchet said in his sleep, "No, Alister don't. Please... don't kill me. No... please, Alister... don't kill me... no... no... NO!"

The golden Lombax's eyes snapped open as he sat upwards, breathing heavily and his heart beating fast. His eyes wondered the dark lounge room of the family's house, realizing it was just another bad dream.

Ratchet sighed heavily, "When will these nightmares just leave me alone?" he said to himself as he went back to sleep, not knowing Clank was watching him sadly with an eye half open.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet & Clank, all rights go to Insomniac Games.

Author's notes: Well there's chapter 5 done, now onto the sixth... I apologize again for the (late?) chapter, I promise chapter 6 will arrive sooner than chapter 5... if not, I'll bang my head on the desk 20 times. Read and Review!

Question for readers: What questions would you ask about this story? I won't answer them... 'cause I don't want to spoil this story, I'm just wondering what questions would you'll like to ask about it.


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